TOKYO; Japan's Immigration Services Agency plans to introduce digital forensics from the next fiscal year to recover deleted electronic data during investigations, as it steps up efforts to crack down on foreign nationals residing illegally in the country and identify businesses employing them.
Digital forensics techniques will be used to analyse data extracted from computers and smartphones seized from foreign nationals suspected of working illegally.
As part of its fiscal 2027 budget request, the agency has sought ¥50 million to cover expenses related to the initiative.
The agency expects the move to help expose the extent of illegal employment and identify people involved, including brokers who act as intermediaries.
Under the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, foreign nationals who overstay their visas or engage in activities outside the scope of their residence status can face penalties. Employers who facilitate illegal employment are also subject to punishment.
However, employers rarely leave behind paper trails, such as employment contracts, while work-related messages on social media are often altered or deleted.
Unlike the police, which already use digital forensics, the immigration agency has sometimes struggled to gather sufficient evidence to build cases during its investigations.
The new techniques are also expected to speed up investigations, as the agency currently examines seized smartphones and other devices manually.
At present, investigators document messages and images by photographing device screens. Digitally recovered data, however, has the advantage of being more readily admissible as legal evidence in court.
As of July, there were 65,229 foreign nationals in Japan who had overstayed their visas, many of whom are suspected of working illegally. - Japan News/ANN
