Woman held over visa status scam

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A Chinese woman has been detained at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau for allegedly selling forged employment certificates to two Chinese to enable them to remain in Japan under a fraudulent visa status, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Friday.

The 28-year-old woman allegedly sold the certificates for 600,000 yen each so the two could stay in the country as "interpreters" for Tokyo-based companies after their original visas expired, according to sources.

The woman also is suspected to have sold job certificates to a further 10 former Chinese students.

The number of Chinese who stay in the country under the visa status of "specialist in humanities and international services," usually granted to translators, interpreters, language teachers and specialists in liberal arts, has grown rapidly in the last two years.

Immigration officials suspect a growing number of Chinese have begun obtaining visas by passing themselves off as interpreters, according to the sources.

On June 26, the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau and the Saitama prefectural police arrested a 29-year-old former Chinese student of Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, on suspicion of violating the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law.

The former student allegedly sold antiques on the Internet, an activity banned under his visa status.

A 29-year-old Chinese student who lived with the former student also was arrested on suspicion of overstaying a visa.

In March this year and last, the former student submitted to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau a certificate of employment as interpreter for a trading firm in Minato Ward, Tokyo, and obtained a visa for the "specialist in humanities and international services" category.

The former student's roommate submitted an application to the immigration bureau for a visa status change using an employment certificate from a trading firm in Ota Ward, Tokyo, in April, shortly before the current one was due to expire.

However, the firm in Minato Ward turned out to be a paper company, and the address of the Ota Ward firm was just used for storage purposes, according to the sources.

Under questioning by immigration officials, the two reportedly confessed they had purchased the employment certificates for 600,000 yen each from a woman who brokered the deal.

Based on their confessions, immigration officials detained the woman on July 12 when she was about to leave the country from Narita Airport for allegedly submitting a fake document to the immigration bureau.

Under her visa status, the woman is registered as an interpreter for a publisher in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, at which the president of the trading firm in Minato Ward serves as the corporate officer.

She reportedly told immigration officials she had forged the employment certificate of the Minato Ward firm using the company seal.

She said she had obtained the job certificate for the Ota Ward trading firm, through a Chinese intermediary, from the firm's president, according to the sources.

The immigration bureau also discovered that 10 former Chinese students had submitted job certificates issued by the trading firm in Minato Ward and the publisher in Chiyoda Ward. The sources said the whereabouts of most of them are unknown, even though they are supposed to be working as interpreters.

According to the sources, the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau suspects the woman brokered the forgery of the certificates and plans to question presidents of the trading firms and others believed to be involved.