Chinese Man and Accomplice Arrested for Brokering Sham Marriages Allegedly Recruited via Social Media
This article organizes publicly available information into a single account. Where it describes an arrest or an ongoing investigation, that reflects only one stage of criminal procedure and does not mean guilt has been established (the presumption of innocence applies). We will update this article as new information becomes available, including the outcome of prosecution, non-prosecution, or trial. This article is not intended to unfairly disparage any individual, group, nationality, ethnicity, or belief, and aims to provide objective, fact-based information.
On February 26, 2026, the Gifu Prefectural Police arrested Chinese national Lu Mingfeng (35) and care-facility worker Sakaguchi Atsuko (63) on suspicion of causing a public official to record false information in an official document, among other charges, for allegedly brokering sham marriages to help people obtain residency status. The two are suspected of submitting a false marriage registration in August of the previous year, making it appear that a Chinese woman had married a man in Gifu City, and having it accepted by the city.
The two are believed to have posted on social media with messages such as, "Contact us if you want to get married — the partner is Japanese," to recruit applicants, and are said to have repeatedly brokered sham marriages over the course of a year, earning more than 15 million yen in profit. This points to an organized brokering operation.
Current status: As of this writing, coverage of a separate case (a sham-marriage case in Aichi Prefecture) has revealed that both suspects have already been indicted. Arrest to indictment.
It has since come to light that the two also brokered a sham marriage for a different couple in Mizuho, Aichi Prefecture (related coverage), indicating that this was not an isolated incident but part of an organized brokering operation spanning multiple cases. Sham marriage, as a means of fraudulently obtaining residency status, has become one category of foreign-national crime alongside offenses such as misuse of residence cards (related coverage).