Tokyo's top cop wants crackdown on illegal aliens

TOKYO, June 27 (Reuters) Tokyo police must crackdown on migrants who enter Japan illegally or overstay their visas in order to stem a ise in violent crime by foreigners, the city's police chief said today.

Mr TetsuroIto, superintendent general of the Tokyo metropolitan police, said that although the number of non-immigration-related offences by foreigners has held steady in recent years, reign criminals have become better organised and are involved in increasingly serious crimes.

''There are people who enter Japan for the sole purpose of committing crimes,'' Io told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

''Illegal residents make up the biggest portion of foreigners who commit crimes. We need to be concerned about this and to take counter-measures.'' The perception that violent crime by foreigners is on the rise has been stoked by several grisly, widely reported murders.

A 25-yearold Chinese man was sentenced to death last year for his role in the killing of a family of four in Fukuoka, southern Japan.

Two accomplices were arrested after returning to China and sentenced to life in prison there.

The arrest of an unemployed Peruvian for killing a 7-year-old girl in November prompted the government to set up a high-level panel to review immigration policy.

The man had falsely claimed Japanese ancestry to get visa, media reported.

Fear that crime by foreigners is increasing has made many Japanese wary of welcoming more migrant workers, something some economists say is needed to bolster a shrinking work force as the population ages and declines.

The number of registered foreign nationals in Japan has doubled over the past 25 years to about 2 million or 1.5 per cent of the population. An additional 250,000 foreigners are in the country illegally, according to government estimates.

The head of the immigration panel, Vi Justice Minister Taro Kono, has suggested limiting the proportion of foreigners to 3 per cent of the population.

Ito declined to say whether he thought broad restrictions on foreigners were needed. Instead, he said police would focus on breaking up foreign criminal gangs and cracking down on bars and sex businesses that employ foreign women who enter the country illegally.

''Gangs of foreigners are increasingly noticeable, especially in entertainment districts,'' Ito said.

Tokyo police arrested 2,286 foreigners from penal-code violations in 2005, slightly fewer than in 2004 and roughly the same number as a decade earlier, when the foreign population was smaller.

But arrests for violations of ''special laws'' -- a separate category comprising immigration and other rules --early quadrupled between 1996 and last year, police figures show.

Chinese made up per cent of all foreigners arrested last year, followed by Koreans at 12 per cent.

The latest case of headline-grabbing foreign crime, a Chinese and a South Korean were arrested along with a Japanese accomplice early today for kidnapping the daughter of well-known cosmetic surgeon.

REUTERS SHB ND1610