The government plans to make it mandatory, and no longer voluntary, that all companies in Japan report details about noncitizens when employing or dismissing them, in order to prevent an increase in illegal employment, officials said Thursday.
The details will include the names, nationalities and visa status and duration. Employers who fail to make such reports or file false reports may be fined up to 300,000 yen. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will draft an employment promotion law amendment to this effect to submit to the Diet during the ordinary session in the first half of next year, they said.
Currently all companies with 50 or more employees are asked to voluntarily submit annual reports on their employment of foreign workers to public employment security offices.
Of some 155,000 companies asked to present such reports in the year to last March, about 94,000 complied, specifying numbers of employed foreign workers and their breakdown by sex, the officials said.
Permanent residents of Korean ethnicity are exempt from such reporting.