A Chinese woman who posed as a Japanese orphan repatriated from China brought her relatives to Japan on that identity and claimed welfare for more than 10 years, in a fraud that laid bare thin checks on both residency and benefits.
The case came to light in 2007. A joint investigation unit including the Metropolitan Police Department arrested 12 Chinese men and women living in Japan, one after another, on suspicion of fraud and violating the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.
They had passed themselves off as the relatives of a real female orphan left behind in China after the war, entered Japan on that basis and collected welfare payments.
How the identity was obtained
The scheme began in the early 1990s. A Chinese woman living in China applied to the Japanese government to return, posing as Yuko (not her real name), a real orphan.
At the time the Ministry of Health and Welfare, now the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and the Foreign Ministry were running a program to bring home orphans stranded in China by the war. Confirming family registries and identities from that chaotic period was extremely difficult.
The woman was certified as Yuko herself and obtained Japanese nationality and permission to enter the country.
Her relatives followed. Under the law then in force, family members of an orphan cleared to return, including children and spouses, could accompany or be summoned to Japan on status-of-residence visas such as long-term resident. The practice has since been abolished.
More than 10 relatives, including the eldest son of the woman who had taken Yuko's name, entered Japan one after another as the family of a Japanese orphan.
The woman stayed for a while, then returned to China and left her relatives behind. They went to their local welfare offices and applied for benefits.
They spoke almost no Japanese. But they held long-term resident status formally granted by the Japanese government, so the welfare offices had no choice under the rules but to approve payments.
Some were earning money from part-time work and hid it while collecting benefits. The payments ran for more than 10 years, and the total taken is said to have reached tens of millions of yen.
“I thought we could live well if we came to Japan, so I had my mother claim to be Japanese.”the arrested eldest son, in a statement to police
The real Yuko
Welfare is the last safety net, guaranteed by Article 25 of the Constitution, which promises a minimum standard of living worthy of human dignity. The money taken was tax revenue meant for people genuinely in need.
Behind the case was the real Yuko. Her identity and her Japanese name were taken from her, and she was used inside Japan as the instrument of the fraud.
The case shook public trust in the welfare system, along with confidence in how closely the authorities check claims.