3 Arrested over Illegal Hiring of Vietnamese Workers in Japan

Tokyo, March 4 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo police have arrested three men for their alleged involvement in employing Vietnamese nationals without work permits at a factory in the city of Fukuroi in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan. Those arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department were Kazuhiko Ida, 54, who heads a staffing agency in the Shizuoka city of Iwata, and Yuya Usami, 45, who was in charge of recruitment at the firm. Both have admitted to the charges. Also arrested was Tetsuya Nakamura, 58, the head of the metal-processing factory of Nippon Kenma. On Wednesday, the police sent papers on the two companies to public prosecutors. The three are suspected of facilitating the illegal employment of four Vietnamese nationals at the plant between Nov. 20, 2024, and Jan. 28, 2026. After leaving facilities in Japan where they had worked as technical interns due to what they claimed were wage and interpersonal relations issues, the four, believed to have become overstaying residents, were introduced to the Fukuroi factory job by Ida’s staffing company via brokers on social media. According to the police, Nakamura said that the factory had been suffering from a labor shortage, even after putting up job advertisements. Since November 2020, a total of 65 Vietnamese nationals have been sent to work at the plant through Ida’s firm. The factory paid the staffing agency some 90 million yen in referral fees. The incident came to light last May following an investigation into a 26-year-old Vietnamese man who was arrested on suspicion of illegal stay. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]