provisions for the collection of reports, orders for improvement, revocation of certification, and other matters.

- In addition to establishing a permission system for the supervising organizations and the criteria for permission and the grounds for disqualification of the permission, provisions are laid down for the collection of reports, orders for improvement, revocation of the permission, and other matters.

- Provisions are established to prohibit acts of human rights infringement against the technical intern trainees, to prescribe penalties for such acts, and to enable the trainee to file a report with the competent Minister in the event of the implementer of the technical intern training or the supervising organization committing an act of infringement as well as a provision on penalties with regard to rendering disadvantageous treatment as a result of the trainee filing the report.

• Organization on technical intern training is newly established as an authorized corporation, and this organization is to perform the administrative affairs relating to certification of the technical intern training plans and permission for the supervising organizations, on-site inspections for the implementers of the technical intern training and supervising organizations, and advice and assistance for the technical intern trainees.

- The act enables the acceptance of technical intern trainees of technical intern training (iii) (implementation of the 4th and 5th year of the technical intern training) limited to trustworthy implementers of technical intern training and supervising organizations.

## ☐ Promotion of the Acceptance of Highly-Skilled Foreign Nationals

- The points-based preferential immigration treatment for highly-skilled professionals classifies the activities of the highly-skilled foreign nationals into the three categories of “advanced academic research activities”, “advanced specialized/technical activities” and “advanced business management activities” with a certain number of points being awarded for such items as “academic background”, “professional career” and “annual salary” according to the characteristics of each category. Foreign nationals whose total number of points exceeds a certain number of points are recognized as “highly-skilled foreign nationals”, thereby according to them preferential immigration treatment.

- In order to further promote the acceptance of highly-skilled professionals, the new statuses of residence of “Highly Skilled Professional (i)” and “Highly Skilled Professional (ii)” were established through an amendment of the Immigration Control Act in 2014 for those highly-skilled professionals who had previously been granted the status of residence of “Designated Activities” (enforced on April 1, 2015).

## ☐ Smooth and strict implementation of immigration examinations at the port of entry

• Government-wide efforts are currently underway in Japan toward achieving a tourism-oriented country, and for its part, in order to further promote smoother immigration examinations, the Immigration Bureau has introduced secondary immigration examinations, installed or increased the number of automated gates and streamlined the immigration examinations for cruise ship passengers through landing permission for cruise ship tourists.

- In order to protect people’s lives and public safety, it is of vital importance to unfailingly prevent the entry into the country of terrorists disguising themselves as tourists. Therefore, the Immigration Bureau continues to implement strict immigration examinations at the ports of entry through the utilization of such measures as biometrics data, ICPO’s data on lost and stolen passports and the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS). In addition, there are concerns about the occurrence and increase in so-called cases of stowaways where foreign nationals attempt to illegally enter Japan using ships in order to avoid the landing examinations which utilize personal identification information, and since terrorists and other suspect persons may be hiding among these illegal entrants, information pertaining to cases of illegal immigration is being collected, analyzed and shared by mobile teams composed of immigration control officers and various forms of joint training are being conducted with reinforced cooperation from the relevant organizations, while border measures such as patrols at the seaports and coastal areas and searches of ships entering Japan are being strengthened.