The Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau is holding 14 Chinese, including one Snakehead-connected broker, for staying and working in Japan illegally, it said Oct. 1.The 14, including four women, are all from China's Fujian Province, bureau officials said, adding that they either smuggled themselves into Japan by boat or entered on fake Chinese or Taiwanese passports. The Snakehead smuggling ring played a role in enabling them to enter Japan, they said.Zhang Xiaqi, 38, let a number of Chinese illegals live in apartments he had rented in Tokyo's Suginami Ward for more than three years, receiving between 5 percent and 10 percent commission from their wages, according to the officials. Most of the illegal immigrants were working for construction firms, with a few working as cleaners, food-processing laborers or hostesses, they said.Xiaqi entered Japan in November 1989 via Bangkok on a fake Taiwanese passport, the officials said. He earned about 6 million yen during the three years and nine months he worked as a broker and transferred most of the money back to China, they added.
