Three Arrested in Shizuoka, Including Staffing Company President, for Illegally Employing 65 Vietnamese Nationals Who Fled Technical Intern Placements
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.
The Metropolitan Police Department announced by March 4, 2026 that it had arrested three men on suspicion of violating the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act (facilitating illegal employment): Kazuhiko Ida (54), president of the staffing company Idea, based in Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture; company employee Yuya Usami (45, of Kakegawa); and Tetsuya Nakamura (58, of Kakegawa), the Kakegawa factory manager for the metal-polishing company Nippon Kenma, headquartered in Fukui City.
They are accused of dispatching Vietnamese men and women who had fled their technical intern training placements to work at a metal-processing factory since November 2020, despite knowing they did not hold valid work status. A total of 65 Vietnamese nationals are believed to have been employed at the factory, and Ida and the others are estimated to have received roughly 90 million yen in total placement fees. The interns are said to have fled their original placements due to low wages and violence from Japanese coworkers, and to have found their way to the company through Vietnamese brokers operating via Facebook.
Current status: Whether the three men will be referred for prosecution or indicted, and the status of efforts to identify the Vietnamese brokers operating on Facebook, remain unclear as of this writing. This article will be updated as further details emerge.
This case illustrates a structural problem in which technical intern trainees, after fleeing poor working conditions, are exposed to a different risk: illegal employment. On the issue of missing technical interns, reporting has already highlighted a theft-ring case involving instructions from ringleaders based in Vietnam (related coverage). Together, these cases point to both illegal employment and criminal activity as routes that absorb interns after they flee their original placements.