Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi announced on 22/5 that the policy package, named "Plan for Zero Illegal Foreign Residents", also known as "Plan Zero", outlines key areas of focus for the Immigration Services Agency (ISA).

This policy package builds upon an initiative first announced in 2025. It retains core pillars such as expediting the implementation of the electronic entry permit system (JESTA), shortening asylum application processing times, digitizing immigration procedures, encouraging voluntary repatriation, and organizing escorted deportations.

Workers packing strawberries at a facility in Oki town, Fukuoka prefecture, Japan in 1/2025. Photo: AFP.

The updated version also lists more specific steps. The ISA will collect and analyze information from social media to detect illegal migrant workers and address the trafficking of fake residence cards.

The ISA is intensifying its efforts against illegal employers and individuals or organizations facilitating these activities. The current penalties of three years imprisonment or up to 3 million yen (19,000 USD) will increase to five years imprisonment or 5 million yen starting 1/4/2027.

The agency will also reinforce measures to prevent scrap metal collection facilities from becoming hotspots for illegal worker recruitment, especially as the number of such sites grows due to sharply rising metal prices.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has made combating illegal immigration one of her top policy priorities since taking office in 10/2025. She instructed Minister Hiraguchi to develop a plan to improve the situation in 11/2025.

According to the Japan Times, the number of overstayers detected in Japan decreased to 68,488 as of 1/1, lower than the 74,863 recorded during the same period last year. A total of 13,435 foreign nationals were found working illegally, accounting for 72,9% of cases resulting in deportation or other processing in 2025.

By Nhu Tam (Based on Nippon, Japan Times)