A Lower House panel Friday began deliberating a controversial bill that would revise the immigration law by strengthening state control over foreigners and illegal entry by shifting responsibility for alien registration to the central government from municipalities and increasing penalties for violators.
The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc is trying to get the bill passed before the Diet closes for the summer on June 3. But passage is uncertain because many opposition lawmakers and human rights groups have harshly criticized the amendments, saying they could lead to undue surveillance of foreign residents.
In the Lower House, LDP member Masaaki Akaike criticized Justice Minister Eisuke Mori's decision to give a special residency permit to the daughter of an undocumented, and now departed, Filipino couple at a time when the government is trying to decrease the number of illegal aliens.