The number of arrests for entering Japan on fake passports rose sharply in the first half of the year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

Police nationwide found 332 foreigners using fake passports to enter or stay in Japan in the January-June period, up by 122 from the same period last year.

Fake passports were used to enter Japan by 183 Chinese, up by 52, and 30 Filipinos, up by 10.

The NPA said illegal entries via air routes are on the rise, in place of the previously predominant method of human smuggling by ship.

Including these illegal entrants, the police found a total of 2,751 foreigners violated the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law in the six-month period this year, up by 402 from a year earlier.

A breakdown by nationality shows Chinese accounted for 1,134, or 41.2 percent, followed by 430 South Koreans at 15.6 percent, 202 Filipinos at 7.3 percent and 201 Thais at 7.3 percent.

People who overstayed their visas were the largest group at 1,278, up by 53, while illegal entries stood at 204, up by 16.

Illegal aliens were at 329, up by a sharp 298, reflecting a revision to the law Feb. 18, 2000. The law created the new category, which applies to foreigners who entered Japan illegally and unnoticed but were later found to be in the country.

New visas planned

A government panel on international organized crime drew up measures Wednesday to tackle the problem, including introducing visas with seals instead of the current stamp to combat illegal immigration, panel members said.

The headquarters for measures against international organized crime, led by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, decided on the change as forged seals are easier to detect than forged stamps, the members said.

The Foreign Ministry will ask for an allocation for the new visa in the fiscal 2002 budget, with the aim of issuing the new type within the fiscal year, according to the members.

The government intends to introduce a wide-area network connecting the Foreign Ministry and Japanese embassies abroad, as well as the seal visas, to distribute information on people denied visas at one embassy from obtaining them at other embassies, the members said.

The ministry has been studying the new visa system for several years as stamp visas are easy to forge and take time to verify.

Several Japanese embassies in the Philippines, South Korea and elsewhere are experimentally issuing the seal-type visa, the ministry said.