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Japan: Laotian couple arrested over fake birth registration A Laotian married couple and an acquaintance, all from Ayase, Kanagawa Prefecture, were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of making false statements in notarized documents after the couple registered the acquaintance's baby as their own to obtain special residency status, police said. The husband illegally obtained special residency status under the pretext of raising their child. The husband and wife are suspected of passing off the baby girl of their female acquaintance as their own and submitting foreign resident registration documents to the Hiratsuka municipal office around Sept. 18, 2007. The Daily Yomiuri

Japan: Three held in plot to obtain nationality for foreign baby A Japanese man and two foreigners have been arrested on suspicion of conspiring to arrange for a baby born to foreign parents to be granted Japanese nationality by falsely attesting... Japan: Chinese woman pleads guilty to ID scam OSAKA (Kyodo) A 44-year-old Chinese woman pleaded guilty Thursday to passing herself off as a relative of a Japanese defector from North Korea to enter Japan. Jin Xiaonu allegedly violated... Japan: Expert advocates for modernization of country's immigration policy Massive layoffs from the current economic crisis are falling heavily on foreign workers, many of whom are opting to leave the country to seek work back home. But for those...

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Japan: Pact with Russia to allow visits to Northern Territories sans entry cards

The Japanese and Russian governments have agreed on a system permitting groups to visit the disputed Northern Territories without presenting embarkation and disembarkation cards, Japanese and Russian diplomatic sources said. The governments reached the agreement as a solution to a...
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Japan: 'Surplus' foreign workers paid to return home

' HAMAMATSU, Japan - Rita Yamaoka, a mother of three who immigrated from Brazil, recently lost her factory job here. Now, Japan has made her an offer she might not be able to refuse. The government will pay thousands of...
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Japan: Filipino family separated by parents' deportation

Clinging to her mother and sobbing frantically, 13-year-old Noriko Calderon bids a frantic goodbye to her parents. The family has been forced apart after illegal immigrants Arlan and Sarah Calderon were deported from Japan, where they have lived for more...
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Japan: Brazilians losing jobs, repatriating under recession

Nagoya, Japan -- One hundred years ago, a wave of poor Japanese migrants settled in Brazil to work on coffee plantations. Today, their descendants number around one million. In the 1990s Japan offered the descendants of those migrants work visas...
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Japan: Gov't plans to repatriate 400,000 to S. America

The Japanese government is planning to combat unemployment by sending back to their countries of origin 400.000 South American immigrants of Japanese stock. The idea is to pay them a small subsidy and a one way ticket to South America,...
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Japan: Gov't. offers cash to repatriate S. Americans

Tokyo (AP) -- Japan is offering nearly $4,000 for a plane ticket home to some foreigners who have lost their jobs, a sign of just how bad the economic slump has gotten. The program, which began yesterday, applies only to...
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Japan: Gov't makes slight relaxation to refugee policy

Kyaw Kyaw Soe lives in a suburb of the Japanese capital Tokyo. This Burmese activist fled his country to avoid being jailed. He first came to Japan on a tourist visa and then applied for refugee status. He has bad...
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Japan: Filipino workers protest journalist's 'slur'

Hong Kong (DPA) -- Filipino migrant workers are planning to protest against Hong Kong journalist Chip Tsao who wrote a satirical article describing the Philippines as a 'nation of servants,' a migrants group said Wednesday. Dolores Balladares, the chairwoman of...
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Japan: Gov't. prods some foreigners to repatriate with cash offers

Tokyo (AP) -- Japan began offering money Wednesday for unemployed foreigners of Japanese ancestry to go home, mostly to Brazil and Peru, to stave off what officials said posed a serious unemployment problem. Thousands of foreigners of Japanese ancestry, who...
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Japan: Gov't. opening 'one stop' service centers for foreign nationals

With more and more foreign residents facing employment and immigration problems due to the ongoing recession, the Ministry of Justice is creating new 'One Stop Centers' for foreign residents in the Kanto and Tokai regions to handle queries in one...
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Japan: Indonesian caregivers encourage compatriots back home to immigrate

Jakarta -- News and e-mail messages from Indonesian nurses working in hospitals and nursing facilities in Japan have encouraged their colleagues to seek similar opportunities. Dyana, 30, and Endah Trisnawati, 25, are among them. Last Friday, along with 300 other...
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Japan: Lawyers, activists fret implications of revised immigration laws

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations and nonprofit organizations voiced concern Wednesday that bills to revise immigration laws will violate the human rights of foreign residents. The bills were submitted to the Diet earlier this month and will be deliberated...
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Japan: Gov't. plans spending to aid unemployed, repatriate foreign workers

Tokyo (AFP) -- Japan may spend more than US$15 billion to protect jobs and help the unemployed amid its steepest economic downturn in decades, Japanese Labor Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said yesterday. The plan could cover vocational training for job-seekers, subsidies...
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