[International] Chinese Couple in Japan Arrested for Allegedly Helping Chinese Nanny Forge Visa Application
bella@@ 央廣 新聞2d agoEdited
A Chinese couple, who have naturalized as Japanese citizens, are suspected of forging residency status applications for a Chinese nanny, allowing her to enter Japan on a visa that did not match her actual work. They have been arrested by the police for allegedly violating the "Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act." Police suspect the couple has been long-term assisting wealthy Chinese families in relocating to Japan and are expanding their investigation to see if there are other similar cases. However, the couple currently denies all charges.
According to NHK and Sankei Shimbun reports, an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department revealed that 39-year-old Tazawa Hōsei and his 37-year-old wife, Tazawa Olivia (real names Wang Pengcheng and Wang Shuying), are suspected of assisting a Chinese nanny in her 40s three years ago. They allegedly applied for a "Skills, Humanities, International Services" (commonly known as "Gijin-koku") residency status for her under the guise of working in professional fields such as interpretation and information processing. In reality, after entering Japan, the woman did not work as a company employee but took care of children in the home of her Chinese employer.
According to reports, Tazawa Hōsei is a Chinese entrepreneur who has naturalized as a Japanese citizen. On May 24th, he appeared as a guest interviewee on NHK's special program "Portraits of the Sun," where he was interviewed.
The police stated that a Chinese woman working in Japan at the time approached the Tazawa couple, wanting to hire a nanny to care for her children. The couple then arranged for the Chinese nanny to enter Japan. This nanny was arrested by the police in April this year and indicted for violating the "Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act."
The report states that the police received anonymous tips between November last year and this year, alleging that in a luxury residence in Minato Ward, Tokyo, a wealthy Chinese family had hired multiple nannies with non-compliant residency statuses to care for young children. An investigation was immediately launched.
The investigation found that the Chinese woman who hired the nannies had been living in Japan since 2021 and resided in a luxury house with nine children aged 2 to 5. Last year, her residency status expired, and she returned to China with several children. Some children remained in Japan, managed by a secretary in her 30s, who arranged for nannies from China to care for them.
The police pointed out that the secretary was also arrested in June this year for allegedly illegally arranging for a foreign national to engage in unauthorized work. She confessed that all arrangements were made according to the instructions of the children's mother.
Currently, three foreign nannies have been arrested and indicted in connection with this case. The police stated that one of them, a Chinese-Australian male nanny in his 40s, was responsible for teaching the children English, while the other two were responsible for transporting the children to and from international schools and daily care.
The Immigration Services Agency of Japan stated that the "Gijin-koku" residency status applies to professional work such as translation, IT, marketing, and international trade, and does not permit employment as a nanny. In this case, to allow the Chinese nanny to obtain a visa smoothly, the suspects reported to the government that she would be a company employee and fabricated her work experience to obtain residency status.
The police believe that in addition to assisting wealthy Chinese families in relocating to Japan, the Tazawa couple may have also been long-term involved in using fraudulent applications to help nannies work in Japan. They are currently continuing to investigate whether a larger illegal brokerage network is involved.
According to statistics, there are currently approximately 470,000 foreigners in Japan holding the "Gijin-koku" residency status. Vietnamese nationals are the largest group, with about 121,000, followed by Chinese with over 117,000, and Nepalis ranking third with about 48,000.
Source Link: https://www.rti.org.tw/news?uid=3&pid=215423
How does this article make you feel?
0 people reacted