Immigration agents nab Japanese recruiter

A Japanese national suspected of engaging in the illegal recruitment of Filipino entertainers to Japan was arrested yesterday by the Bureau of Immigration.

Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo identified the Japanese as Keiji Kobayashi, 35, who was arrested for operating a recruitment agency without the required working visa.

Kobayashi entered the country as a tourist and was caught in the act of managing the recruitment business although he did not have any permit from the proper government agency.

He is married to a Filipina named Jonna Kobayashi who fronts as the agency’s owner and manager.

Kobayashi acquired a resident visa by reason of his marriage to a Filipina, but the said visa expired last June 26 of this year. His latest arrival record showed he entered the country as a balikbayan last July 8.

Kobayashi was arrested on the basis of a complaint of Abraham Caoili, his former business partner, who tipped the bureau about the alien’s illegal recruitment activities.

It was also Caoili who informed the bureau that Kobayashi is an ordinary tourist without a valid permit to work or do business in the Philippines. – Rey Arquiza