Tokyo, May 27: Japan's Parliament passed a bill to tighten immigration rules today as concern heightened over the country's vulnerability to international terrorism. The legislation raises the penalty for illegally staying in Japan to 3 million Yen (USD 26,700) from 300,000 Yen (USD 2,670). It also bans deported foreigners from re-entering Japan for 10 years, twice as long as before.
The law will take effect in phases over the coming year. Parliament's vote to pass the bill comes a day after police raided 10 sites across Japan and arrested five people as part of an investigation of French citizen Lionel Dumont, suspected of having al-Qaeda links, and of possibly trying to set up a terror cell here. The discovery that Dumont, who had a history of violent crime, made his way to Japan's countryside and worked there as a used car salesman in 2002-2003 has lent new urgency to concerns over immigration controls.
Dumont was arrested in Germany in December and was extradited to France on May 18. Japan has already launched a campaign to halve the number of its illegal foreign residents, estimated at about 250,000. Combatting crime has been the campaign's main stated goal, though statistics show foreigners commit crimes at about the same rate as Japanese.
Bureau Report