The mechanism of illegal workers in Japan

For 30 days the family could not contact my cousin. It turned out that he absconded after his trainee contract ended, becoming an illegal alien and working for a construction site, one that employed undocumented workers and paid much higher wages than his trainee job.

One day he was arrested by the police at a train station in Tokyo.

Some people who were in the same situation as him managed to escape the cops' clutches. With great difficulty, I managed to contact one of them, but only received information about the name of the train station where my cousin was arrested.

I had to rely on my contacts in the logistics business and some Japanese lawyers to be able to find him.

I do not blame the people who were with him. They were justifiably fearful that revealing more information would be unsafe for the entire cohort of undocumented residents.

According to a 2023 report by the Immigration Services Agency of Japan (ISA), of the 18,198 foreigners deported in 2023 for violating the Immigration Control Act, the number staying in the country for working illegally was 12,384 (68%).

The number of Vietnamese was 6,953, or 38.2% of the total and the highest of any nationality.

These were just the detected and deported; the real number must be much larger.

In another report, the ISA said that as of June 2025 the number of foreigners illegally overstaying their visas in Japan was 71,229.

Vietnam again accounted for the largest number, at around 13,000, followed by Thailand and South Korea.

A Japanese class for Vietnamese looking to work in Japan is held in Hanoi, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh

Why does Japan allow tens of thousands of foreign workers to live illegally without cracking down? Why has this continued for many years?

The answer lies in the tacit compromise between the three parties involved.

The first are the workers. Many Vietnamese borrow hundreds of millions of dong to go abroad and cannot easily return home until they repay the loan.

Their illegal income can be double or triple their official original contract, and there is no binding management regime with representative agencies and labor recruitment organizations in Vietnam. They accept living in fear as long as they have a job and money.

The second party are the Japanese employers: The 3D (dirty, demeaning, dangerous) industry needs cheap and unentitled labor. The "runaway" laborer is the perfect target: hard-working, uncomplaining, uninsured, and easy to fire.

The Japanese economy needs them but cannot admit it.

Finally, the local government in Japan. It knows about these illegal workers but does not pursue them to the end, because this is part of the economy.

Japanese society needs this human resource since natives do not want to take on 3D jobs.

This tripartite compromise is a win-win for everyone, unless something bad happens. And when something bad happens to someone outside the system, no one knows where they are, no one can contact them and no one can protect them.

With tens of thousands of workers living in a state of legal limbo, it is no longer a small matter that can be handled individually. This is a systemic problem that requires a systemic solution.

On Oct. 21 Sanae Takaichi became prime minister of Japan. In the previous LDP leadership election campaign, she and many other candidates put the issue of foreigners on the agenda.

Toshimitsu Motegi, the former LDP secretary general, once declared the goal of "zero illegal foreigners" or zero tolerance for illegal aliens.

If this policy is implemented, how can we protect Vietnamese living illegally in Japan? We cannot ignore the issue, abandoning the workers. We cannot easily tell them to come forward and live and work legally either.

Vietnam needs a new approach to find and repatriate citizens through support systems that do not depend on legal status: such as hotlines that do not ask for documents or applications that allow anonymity.

This process needs to be accompanied by providing vocational training, counseling and local employment so that emigrants can see a way to survive when they return.

More importantly, and for the long term, it is necessary to negotiate with Japan on improving the labor regime for Vietnamese people based on the actual needs of both sides expanding the legal area instead of letting the gray area grow larger and larger.

Although the "zero illegal foreigners" policy may not be implemented with any great conviction - because of the labor needs of the Japanese economy - its appearance on the political agenda is a sign that the tacit compromise is not sustainable, and the vulnerable group is the Vietnamese who live in legal limbo and without legal protection.

*Nguyen Thanh Canh is a businessman and a customs procedure consultant.