Sunday, 5 February 2012
About | Contact Us | Careers | Feed
RESOURCE CENTRE
Tax and Revenue Management: A government’s lifeblood
IT has provided the opportunities for governments to remodel the entire process of tax collection over the last decade. It is, however, a continuously evolving process and governments the world over need to constantly upgrade their tax systems to optimise their revenue workflows.
Unlocking Public Value
A recent SAP study confirmed that those organisations which adopt best practices in the areas of scope and adoption, process standardisation, technology and customer governance, do perform better, and do so as their best practice maturity increases.
Governments and Socialising
The advent of social media has seen governments hopping onto the bandwagon in a bid to further engage citizens.
Advertisement
Follow us on Twitter 
| Join us on 
Citizen Engagement, Government Security, Policy
Japan introduces ID cards to sniff out illegal immigrants
The Japanese government plans to strengthen its efforts to prevent foreigners from staying in the country illegally by consolidating administrative systems for foreign residents in the nation, according to a draft bill to revise the immigration law.
The plan to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law states that the justice minister will issue new residence cards for “aliens” staying in Japan for the mid- to long-term.
The current Alien Registration Certificates—a compulsory card for all foreigners staying in Japan for more than 90 days—will be abolished, and foreigners will instead use the new cards as identification.
The draft bill also includes provisions to imprison or deport people who forge the envisaged cards.
The new cards will carry the foreigner’s name, date of birth, gender, nationality, address, status of residence and period of stay. Foreign residents must report to the Immigration Bureau any changes such as to their place of employment, school or address.
Under the current law, foreign residents are required to report such changes only to municipal governments. However, this system has bogged down attempts by the Immigration Bureau to keep a comprehensive track of foreign residents.
The revised law will also allow the bureau to investigate, on a voluntary basis, institutions and other bodies that are responsible for helping foreigners enter the country.
To reduce the time and paperwork involved in renewal procedures, the draft bill calls for extending the period of stay to five years for aliens who are currently allowed to stay in Japan for up to three years.
The bill also includes a provision to create a new status of residence for aliens coming to Japan on the government’s foreign trainee system. It stipulates that the Minimum Wages Law and other labour-related laws will be applied to such foreign trainees.
Meanwhile, the status of residence for international students will no longer be divided into “college students”, who attend a college or advanced vocational school, and “pre-college students,” who attend a high school or Japanese language school. Under the new system, the two categories will be integrated to allow foreign students to skip procedures to change their status of residence when they go on to higher education.
Rate this article
Add your comment
Most highly rated
Better learning with web 2.0 and virtual worlds
In a visit to Ngee Ann Secondary School yesterday (22 July), FutureGov found students deeply ...
Students take a green stance with social media
Ngee Ann Secondary School’s students are on a bid to “change the world” with ...
Will Facebook profiles replace govt web sites?
It’s all the rage for ministries and agencies to have a Facebook pages these ...