The Justice Ministry will upgrade its Immigration Bureau to an agency from April to deal with an anticipated influx of foreign workers, Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa said at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
With the government seeking to accept more foreign workers from April and introducing a new status of residence amid a serious labor crunch across industries, the Justice Ministry will be conducting "a fundamental revision of the Immigration Bureau" and is currently finalizing the establishment of a new agency that will oversee immigration, Kamikawa said.
When asked about how the overhaul may affect the ministry's budgetary request for the next fiscal year, Kamikawa refrained from commenting on specifics, merely stating that "the funding needed to set up the agency will be requested as necessary."