Three Arrested for Brokering Illegal Thai Labor for Apple Orchards, Employer Already Arrested
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On May 13, 2026, the Saitama Prefectural Police arrested three Thai women, including unemployed Suzuki Chariya (62) of Soka City and unemployed Kudo Ratchanee (74) of Suzaka City, Nagano Prefecture, on suspicion of violating the Immigration Control Act (brokering illegal employment) for allegedly placing Thai nationals without work authorization at farms and other workplaces.
The charge stems from an allegation that in May 2025 the suspects introduced two Thai nationals without work authorization to an apple orchard operator in Iizuna, Nagano Prefecture, and had them employed there. They are also said to have placed illegal workers at a grape orchard in Suzaka in June of that year and at a restaurant in Ibaraki Prefecture in October. The three are believed to have received payment in exchange for the placements, and the Thai nationals working illegally reportedly received advice on entry procedures from a broker in Thailand and entered Japan posing as short-term tourists. In January 2026, the prefectural police also arrested the employer who had received workers through the three suspects, on suspicion of facilitating illegal employment.
Current status: The case is at the arrest stage; whether prosecutors will indict the suspects had not been determined as of this writing. The arrest of the brokers came more than three months after the employer's arrest in January.
The organized structure of illegal-employment brokering, working in coordination with a broker based in Thailand, mirrors a pattern seen in illegal-employment facilitation cases reported in Saitama, Hyogo, and elsewhere (related coverage), and is believed to reflect a gap between supply and demand for foreign labor in the agricultural sector.