OSAKA (Kyodo) A 44-year-old Chinese woman pleaded guilty Thursday to passing herself off as a relative of a Japanese defector from North Korea to enter Japan.
Jin Xiaonu allegedly violated the immigration law by entering Japan in February under the name of the daughter of Hiroko Saito, 68, a defector who is the Japanese wife of a North Korean man.
Saito was arrested in March by Osaka police on suspicion of falsely passing off four Chinese nationals as her relatives so they could enter Japan.
As Jin Xiaonu's trial got under way at the Osaka District Court, the prosecutors said she repeatedly entered Japan after becoming acquainted with Saito in March 2001.
She is also charged with conspiring with Jin Xiaoyue, 47, in attempting to obtain a passport for the latter by submitting a false application to a Tokyo passport office in March.