Excerpt, Tentative translation
Privileges for Koreans Living in Japan (9/15)
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
October 14, 2025 edition
As of that date, there are no pages in languages other than Japanese and Korean.
Abusive Use of the System in the Era of Easy Name Changes
Until a 2013 notice restricting such changes was issued, it was easy to change the alias on one's Alien Registration Card.[55]
As a result, in September 2000, a Korean man in Japan was arrested for abusing this system by obtaining approximately 30 health insurance cards with different names and purchasing and selling a large number of cell phones.[56] In November 2013, a Korean resident in Japan was arrested on suspicion of fraud and violation of the Act on Punishment of Organized Crimes and Control of Crime Proceeds (Concealment) for allegedly using numerous aliases to defraud and resell approximately 160 smartphones, tablets, and other devices.[57]
The case was discovered during an investigation following a report from a ward office that became suspicious of his frequent alias changes.[58] The charge of concealment under the Organized Crime Punishment Act applies to cases in which organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, and others conceal criminal proceeds.
Koreans in Japan operate ethnically-affiliated financial institutions, such as Shogin Credit Union (Shogin) and Chogin Credit Union (Chogin), at which numerous accounts were opened under aliases, borrowed names, or false names and used fraudulently. In connection with the Kansai Industrial Bank credit union's breach of trust case, Lee Hee-geun, then chairman of the bank, withdrew funds from accounts he had opened at Kansai Industrial Bank and other city banks under his own name and under the alias "Yoshio Hirata" shortly before the bank's collapse. He deposited the funds in Shinhan Bank, where he was also chairman at the time, and transferred approximately 3 billion yen to South Korea. This was allegedly an attempt to conceal his personal assets to avoid seizure.[59] Even after his imprisonment, Lee Hee-geun remained in his positions as honorary chairman of Shinhan Bank and a standing advisor to the Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan).[60]
Furthermore, during Shinhan Bank's internal dispute in 2010, the use of accounts in the names of Korean residents in Japan became an issue.[61][62] In connection with the collapse of Chogin Bank, a bank affiliated with the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), in the late 1990s, it was discovered that numerous fictitious accounts had been opened under aliases and used to send money to North Korea and fund political activities in Japan.[63][64]
In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that a Korean pachinko parlor owner who had opened an account under a fictitious name at Chogin Tokyo and deposited the funds in the account, ordered the government to use public funds to cover the 4.18 billion yen in tax evasion funds that had become time-barred.[65]
As such, the combination of the ease of changing one's common name and ethnic financial institutions that accept borrowed names, aliases, and fictitious accounts has created a breeding ground for crimes such as tax evasion and fraudulent remittances. Meanwhile, it is said that only organized crime groups with strong ties to the Korean community, such as gangsters, were able to open such accounts at ethnic financial institutions.[66]
The case in 2013 that led to stricter rules on name changes was a mobile phone resale case in which a Korean national who had changed his common name six times and was being arrested for reselling mobile phones was arrested. In response to this, on November 15th, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications clarified the general prohibition on changing common names, stating, "We have tightened the requirements for foreigners when they enter their common names, and as a general rule, we will not allow changes." The man had changed his common name by falsely claiming that "someone with the same common name has done something bad" or "I'm a musician. There is someone with the same name in the industry" [7].
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