also an important task in terms of immigration control administration along with measures against illegal residents. “Imposter residents” appear on the surface to be legal residents, which makes it difficult to accurately ascertain their situation, but their increase in numbers is a cause for concern since they substantively orchestrate illegal entry and residence in Japan.

The existence of imposter foreign residents abusing the status of residence system must not be overlooked, and moreover, has the potential to destabilize the foundation of Japan's immigration control administration, and therefore, the Immigration Bureau is striving to strengthen its countermeasures. The Immigration Bureau makes efforts to strictly respond to foreign nationals falling under the grounds of deportation, by revoking their status of residence and then enforcing the deportation procedures against them.

In addition, in recent years, there are a significant number of cases where foreign nationals use forged or altered residence cards or who abuse the applications for refugee recognition, and since these methods are becoming more malicious and sophisticated, the Immigration Bureau closely collaborates with the police and other related organizations, and in malicious cases, the Immigration Bureau proactively seeks criminal punishment and deals strictly with such persons, and also strives to work on measures to uncover the situation of these cases.

## ② Crackdowns on Imposter Foreign Residents, etc

## (1) Reinforcement of the Collection and Analysis of Information

In order to promote measures against imposter foreign residents, it is very important to carry out further effective crackdowns by uncovering such residents based on the collection and analysis of information.

For this reason, as well as continuously and accurately keeping track of the information submitted by the foreign nationals and the organizations with which they are affiliated, the Immigration Bureau uses information received from the general public pertaining to the many foreign nationals staying illegally beyond their authorized period of stay as well as information received through information exchange with the police and other agencies, and information in the notifications of the employment of foreign nationals provided by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and also through reinforcement of the analysis of information conducted by the Center of Collection and Analysis of Intelligence, which specializes in information collection and analysis and was newly established in October 2015 in order to be able to effectively detect and expose the imposter foreign residents, and to deal strictly with them.

## (2) Handling Through Reinforced Exposure and Proactive Application of Law

In order to work on proactive exposure of imposter residents, if as a result of an investigation, a foreign national who is residing with a status of residence which has restrictions on the contents of the activities in Japan is discovered to be engaging solely in work activities which do not belong to the status of residence that was granted, deportation procedures will be proactively executed against such foreign national as a violator engaging in unauthorized activities.

In addition, even if a foreign national does not fall under the grounds for deportation, the Immigration Bureau has been making efforts to reinforce crackdowns through such means as having immigration control officers and immigration inspectors coordinate to uncover the actual situation of the foreign national, and if a foreign national is found to fall under the grounds for revocation of the status of residence, the procedure for revocation of the status of residence will be instituted.