## Section 2 ◆ Staff

## 1 Immigration Control Staff

In immigration centers and regional immigration bureaus, immigration inspectors and immigration control officers are assigned as staffs who are engaged in immigration control duties. In addition, administrative officers of the Ministry of Justice engage in general administrative duties and technical officers of the Ministry of Justice, including doctors, are also assigned.

Immigration inspectors are responsible for

Immigration control staff

(i) examinations and hearings on landing and deportation, (ii) issuance of written detention orders and written deportation orders, (iii) provisional release, and (iv) investigation of recognition of refugees and (v) inquiry into the facts on application regarding statuses of residence. They are also engaged in examining statuses of residence, etc. as assistants for the Minister of Justice.

Immigration control officers are responsible for (i) investigation of violations concerning entry, landing or residence in Japan, (ii) detention, transportation and deportation of foreign nationals in order to execute written detention orders and written deportation orders, (iii) treatment of detainees in immigration centers and detention facilities and guards of these detention facilities, and (iv) inquiry into the facts for continuous identification of information on mid to long-term residents. They fall under police personnel in terms of the National Public Service Act, while falling under public security service staff in terms of the Act on Remuneration of Officials in the Regular Service, because they are often involved in dangerous tasks.

Immigration control officers are divided into seven ranks (keibikan, keibicho, keibishicho, keibishi, keibishiho, keishucho, and keishu, in order of descending superiority) in order to clarify the chain of command for group operations for detection.

Since individual immigration inspectors and immigration control officers perform their duties independently as specialists in immigration control, the specialist system was introduced. These officials are required to have legal knowledge necessary for their duties as well as a balanced point of view from an international perspective and the ability to interact with foreign nationals flexibly while giving consideration to their diverse cultures, custom and religions and their human rights.

## 2 Staff Increase

The number of Immigration Bureau-related staff was 4,410 in FY 2016, which was an increase of about 15% (587) compared to five years ago in FY 2011 when the number was 3,823. However, during this period, the number of cases handled by the immigration offices has remained at a high level, and the immigration control work has been getting more complex and difficult such as the need to balance smooth yet rigorous entry examinations in order to promote Japan as a tourism-oriented country but to prevent terrorist acts and illegal entry; to implement measures to deal with the forged or altered documents that are becoming increasingly more sophisticated; to strengthen the residence management pertaining to foreign nationals after entry into Japan; to enforce strengthened detection and reliable deportation of illegal foreign residents, some of whom are potential criminals; to implement measures