status of residence have not yet elapsed, and moreover a new provision is to be established so that if there are reasonable grounds to believe that foreign nationals whose status of residence has been revoked for the reasons mentioned above, will flee, it will be possible to immediately switch to the deportation procedures, without setting a grace period for departure.

• Immigration control officers in addition to immigration inspectors are able to conduct inquiry into the facts relating to revocation of the status of residence.

## ☐ Revision of the System of Technical Intern Training

The “Bill on Proper Implementation of Technical Intern Training for Foreign Nationals and Protection of the Technical Intern Trainees” was submitted to the 189th session of the Diet on March 6, 2015, but it was not passed at either the session or the 190th session of the Diet, and therefore is subject to continued deliberations. The outline is as given below.

• Provisions are laid down for a system of certification of the technical intern training plan created for each technical intern trainee, the criteria for certification such as the conducting of an evaluation on the acquisition of skills, etc. by the technical intern trainee and the grounds for disqualification of the certification, as well as 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).

## ☐ Acceptance of Foreign Nationals in the National Strategic Special Zones

• The “Bill for Partial Amendment of the Act on National Strategic Special Zones and the Act on Special Zones