Japan’s “highly skilled professional” visa scheme, designed to attract talented foreigners, has been hit by a document forgery scandal, with most of the applicants involved being Chinese nationals.
On Wednesday (28 October), large numbers of forged documents were seized when Japanese police raided an agency specialising in visas for wealthy Chinese, on suspicion of violating the Immigration Control Act.
According to the Japanese police’s international crime division, the arrested suspect is Chinese-born Lanze Pengcheng, whose birth name is Wang Pengcheng. He is suspected of helping Chinese nationals fraudulently obtain highly skilled professional residence status using forged academic qualifications and other documents.
Details of the case show that Lanze conspired with a 57-year-old Chinese female applicant and a 45-year-old executive at a medical consultancy to forge a master’s degree certificate on 5 December 2025.
Lanze also forged proof of employment at the medical consultancy, even though the applicant had no intention of working there. He then submitted the false documents to the Tokyo immigration bureau to obtain a visa fraudulently.
Lanze reportedly charged each client a total of up to US$600,000 (about S$770,000). After deducting US$150,000 eventually returned to the client as “salary”, he netted at least US$450,000 per client.
After her arrest, the Chinese applicant told police, “He claimed he could help me obtain permanent residency legally, so I paid US$600,000. I did not actually graduate from university, and I had no intention of working at that medical company.”
The Japanese government introduced the highly skilled professional visa scheme in 2012 to attract foreign talent in fields such as academia, technology and business management. Applicants are assessed through a points system covering academic qualifications, work experience, annual income, age, professional certifications and Japanese-language proficiency.
In 2017, the government further relaxed the rules, allowing those with at least 70 points to apply for permanent residency after three years of residence. For those with at least 80 points, the period is shortened to just one year. The scheme is therefore seen as a shortcut to a Japanese “green card”.
Asahi Shimbun (《朝日新闻》) reported that, as of the end of last year, 32,953 foreigners held highly skilled professional visas. Of these, 22,169, or 67.3%, were Chinese nationals.
An immigration agent said enquiries from Chinese people about moving to Japan had surged since 2023. Many are wealthy and are drawn to Japan because of China’s sluggish property market and intense domestic competition. Most buy property in Japan, hoping to find business opportunities in tourism and real estate. The proximity of the two countries also makes it convenient for them to return to China to visit relatives.
Experts have pointed out that Japan’s highly skilled professional scheme generally relies on documentary checks, without verification of the authenticity of degree certificates and other supporting documents, leaving the scheme open to abuse.
In June this year, Japanese media revealed that the head of Prince Group, which operates scam compounds in Cambodia and elsewhere, was hiding in Japan on a highly skilled professional visa.
