TOKYO (TR) – A ring of Chinese nationals defrauded municipal governments out of tens of millions of yen in welfare payments over a decade after an elderly woman entered the country posing as a Japanese war-displaced orphan, police said, reports Ben54.jp (Nov. 8).
A joint investigative task force, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, arrested 12 Chinese men and women on suspicion of fraud and violations of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.
According to police, the elaborate scam originated in the early 1990s when a Chinese woman successfully applied for permanent repatriation with the Japanese government by stealing the identity of “Yukiko,” an actual Japanese orphan left behind in northeastern China following the collapse of Manchuria at the end of World War II.
Hampered by the chaotic destruction of wartime family registries, welfare officials accepted the woman’s claim, granting her Japanese nationality and official entry. Exploiting immigration rules of the era that granted “long-term resident” status to immediate relatives of repatriated orphans, the imposter subsequently brought over more than a dozen family members, including her eldest son.
Applied for public assistance
After securing residence for her family, the fake orphan returned to China, leaving her relatives behind. Despite speaking virtually no Japanese, the relatives visited municipal welfare offices and applied for public assistance. Welfare caseworkers, bound by directives to assist legally residing foreigners in financial distress, approved the payments without the means or authority to verify the legitimacy of their entry visas.
Over the next decade, the syndicate collected tens of millions of yen in welfare assistance, with several members secretly earning additional income from part-time jobs.
Following his arrest, the woman’s eldest son admitted to orchestrating the scheme, telling investigators, “I thought we could live a good life if we came to Japan, so I had my mother claim she was Japanese.”
DNA testing
The deception came to light at the tragic expense of the real Yukiko, who was born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1929 and stranded in Manchuria at age 16 before assimilating as an impoverished farmer in Shaanxi Province.
In 2002, hoping to see her surviving relatives before she died, the real victim applied through the Japanese Red Cross Society to visit Japan, only to be rejected after authorities claimed official records showed “Yukiko” had already permanently returned to Japan in the 1990s.
Following an outcry and an on-site government probe, DNA testing in 2005 scientifically confirmed her true identity. She briefly visited her relatives in Fukuoka in 2006 before returning to China, where she passed away in 2018 at the age of 89.
