A Filipino woman was arrested for fraudulently obtaining a passport by impersonating another person and using it to enter and leave the country, despite not having Japanese citizenship.
The suspect, Martinez Maureen Mesiano, 30, a Filipino national of undetermined residence and occupation, was arrested on suspicion of violating the Passport Act and other offenses.
In October of last year, she is suspected of impersonating a relative, a Japanese woman living in the Philippines, submitting a false application for passport issuance with her own photograph attached, obtaining a passport illegally and using it to enter and leave the country unlawfully.
The incident was discovered around June last year when the Japanese woman who had been impersonated tried to obtain her passport to travel from the Philippines to Japan, but it had already been issued.
Martinez is also suspected of conspiring with two female relatives to illegally receive a total of approximately 870,000 yen in welfare payments from Matsubara City Office and Higashinari Ward Office in Osaka City between December 2019 and May last year.
The suspect has generally admitted to the charges and said she came to Japan to work and earn money while studying at a school in Japan. She has already been charged with forgery and use of a private sealed document for fraudulently obtaining a passport, violating of the Passport Act, and violation of the Immigration Control Act for illegally entering and leaving the country.
