Taiwan warns citizens of shady Japanese part-time job schemes

Taipei, Dec. 16 (CNA) Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) warned Tuesday of rising numbers of Taiwanese nationals being lured into shady part-time jobs in Japan and urged people not to fall for the illicit schemes.

Lin Yu-hui (林郁慧), deputy head of the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association under the foreign ministry, said Taiwan's representative office has found a growing number of nationals engaging in the shady gigs that support criminal activity, known as "yami baito," based on arrest records.

Fifty Taiwanese have been arrested in Japan for doing the illicit jobs so far this year, up 10-fold from the four and five arrested for doing those jobs in 2023 and 2024, respectively, Lin said, according to her office's records.

Many of them are lured to Japan by social media posts promising free travel and easy money, only to end up working for telecommunication fraud rings as money mules, she said during a MOFA weekly briefing.

She believed that perceptions of Japan were behind the significant hike in arrests this year because while most Taiwanese now have higher awareness of fraud rings in Southeast Asian countries, they are less aware similar situations could happen in Japan.

Lin urged Taiwanese not to fall for such schemes and only seek part-time jobs in Japan through official channels.

Yami baito is a Japanese term referring to the recruitment of individuals without prior criminal records for illicit activities in Japan, often with promises of high pay and easy work.

The Japanese police have warned that people recruited are forced to provide personal information and are rarely actually paid.

It is hard to gauge how widespread the problem is due to the lack of official figures, though Japan's National Police Agency has said it arrested 2,373 people for engaging in the practice in 2023. It did not break down how many of them were foreign nationals.