The number of foreign nationals who were deported in the January-June period for immigration violations rose 16.5 percent from a year before to 7,892, the Justice Ministry has announced.
The number of people who travel to Japan to work illegally has been increasing amid an overall rise in the number of visitors from overseas, ministry officials said Friday.
Of the first-half total, 4,889 people, or 61.9 percent, were deported for working illegally.
Of them, 1,366 were employed in the agriculture industry, 907 in construction and 849 as factory workers.
Many of the illegal workers had jobs in Tokyo as well as Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures.
