## ② Review of the Organizational Structure of the Immigration Control Offices

With regard to expanding the organizational structure in fiscal year 2015, the position of Immigration Information Policy Planning Officer was newly established in the Immigration Bureau of the Ministry of Justice as a control tower for immigration control information (October 2015) for the purpose of promptly and smoothly conducting examinations to handle the surge in foreign visitors and to reliably prevent the entry of terrorists and other suspect persons, and moreover, to promote countermeasures against imposter residents who are becoming more complex and sophisticated in their techniques, and a structure was prepared to analyze existing information and new information collected in and outside of Japan, and moreover, to provide regional immigration offices with examination guidelines drawn up based on the results of the analyses.

In addition, while the Information Management Department of the Narita Airport District Immigration Office currently carries out the work of crosschecking the advance passenger information (API) against the backlist of suspect persons held by the Immigration Bureau and of notifying the scheduled port of entry, since it has become possible to acquire passenger name record (PNR) from January 2015, a structure was prepared to carry out analysis of a combination of the API and other information such as the PNRs 24 hours a day.

Moreover, in order to develop the structure for immigration examinations in order to promote Japan as a tourism-oriented country, the position of Examination Supervision Officer was newly established at Chubu Airport District Immigration Office, which previously was the only airport that did not have this department out of the authorities with jurisdiction over the four major airports (Narita Airport, Haneda Airport, Chubu Airport and Kansai Airport).

In developing a structure for strict immigration control, it has become difficult to keep track of the situation of residence of foreign nationals who have been granted provisional release owing to the increase in their number in recent years, and since the current situation is that measures are not sufficiently being taken for instructions that need to be given to violators of the conditions of provisional release and for revocation of the provisional release, the Second Enforcement Department was newly established in the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau to handle foreign nationals on provisional release.

In addition, since immigration control officers are being sent to board the patrol boats of the Japan Coast Guard at all times in response to the Chinese state vessels systematically sailing in the waters around the Senkaku Islands and the substantial increase in violations of Japan's territorial waters following the nationalization of the Senkaku Islands in November 2012, the position of a full-time supervising immigration control officer was newly established at Naha District Immigration Office to handle such cases.

Meanwhile, with regard to the immigration detention centers, in light of the recent detention conditions, etc. and based on the results of considerations on the appropriate course, a decision was made to abolish Nishi-Nihon Immigration Center at the end of September 2015.

Further, most branch offices (including branch offices of district immigration offices) of regional immigration bureaus were located within the area of seaports, based on the historical background that they were originally established for immigration examination of crew members and passengers on oceangoing vessels. Now, as the primary means of international transportation shifted from vessels to aircraft, immigration examinations at airports became the main service, and as foreign nationals residing in Japan for a long time increased, the Ministry has proceeded to reorganize, integrate or scrap branch offices at