MANILA (Kyodo) A suspect wanted for arranging fake marriages between Filipino women entertainers and Japanese men was deported from the Philippines on Wednesday afternoon.
Yoshifumi Fujii, 49, was escorted by Japanese police on a Japan Airlines flight for Tokyo after Philippine immigration chief Ronaldo Ledesma signed his deportation order.
Fujii has a warrant from a court in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, for facilitating three fake marriages from April to October 2009 "so that the Philippine entertainers could acquire spouse visas in Japan," an immigration document said.
His involvement in the scam was discovered after some of the couples were arrested last May. To avoid prosecution, Fujii fled to the Philippines last April and stayed in the southern city of Davao.
Immigration authorities nabbed him Jan. 24 in Manila while he was trying to extend his visa.