FUKUOKA -- The number of cases where police across Japan hired outside interpreters to interview foreign suspects and victims reached approximately 66,100 in fiscal 2023, a 1.7-fold increase from 10 years earlier, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned from the National Police Agency (NPA).

According to the NPA, prefectural police forces nationwide have secured internal interpreters, totaling about 4,200 as of April 2024. However, the quick growth in foreign resident numbers plus the need to cover minor languages has outpaced these efforts, leading to more reliance on private-sector interpreters. Experts point out that there is a shortage of personnel and budgets necessary for interpreting.

The number of outsourced interpretation cases increased annually from about 38,600 in fiscal 2013, to about 63,000 in fiscal 2020. Although it decreased in fiscal 2021 due to the COVID-19 crisis, the trend resumed as the pandemic subsided, surpassing 60,000 again in fiscal 2022. The roughly 66,100 cases in fiscal 2023 were the highest in the past decade.

The increase in foreign residents and tourists in Japan is a contributing factor. According to the central government's "Roadmap for the Realization of a Society of Harmonious Coexistence with Foreign Nationals," there were about 3.41 million foreign nationals staying long-term in Japan as of the end of 2023, more than double the approximately 1.32 million 30 years before. Notably, there has been a significant increase in residents from Asian countries, with nationalities becoming more diverse. Inbound tourism also grew more than 2.4 times from 10.36 million in 2013 to 25.06 million in 2023.

As a result, crimes and accidents involving foreigners as suspects, victims or witnesses have surged. Police officers need to question foreign nationals who are not proficient in Japanese in various cases, increasing the importance of interpreters.

The police are not standing idly by. Prefectural police forces are sending young staffers to language training at the National Police Academy's International Police Center to enhance their skills. According to the police agency, about 20 police forces nationwide, including Saitama Prefectural Police and Aichi Prefectural Police, have set special recruitment quotas for linguistically skilled personnel, hiring some 370 people.

Fukuoka Prefectural Police, which oversees Fukuoka Airport, a gateway to Asia, began a pioneering initiative in fiscal 1995 to recruit linguistically skilled people as "special investigators." They have hired 23 English speakers, 64 Mandarin Chinese speakers, 23 Korean speakers, and two each for French and Spanish.

However, this has not fully addressed the skills shortage, and the number of times the force sought cooperation from private interpreters continued to rise, with the cost of private interpretation reaching a record 42 million yen (about $300,000 at the time) in fiscal 2023. The prefectural police have also launched a program to send young employees to Nepal for language training for seven to 12 months, but they are struggling to keep up with demand.

Ensuring the quality of interpretation is also a challenge. In March 2024, the Tsu District Court in Mie Prefecture acquitted a Filipino woman who had been accused of violating the Stimulants Control Act, recognizing that the charges were based on misinterpretation. The woman had been detained for more than two years with restricted visitation rights. Her lawyer, Miwako Honjo, criticized the case, saying, "Investigative authorities indicted the woman based on the assumption that she had transferred illegal drugs, failing to adequately verify the facts despite the interpretation containing basic errors."

Takahiro Akedo, an associate professor of sociology at Osaka Metropolitan University who has researched police responses to people with foreign roots, pointed out, "Japanese society can no longer function without foreign workers. As Japan accepts foreigners, the police need to secure the necessary systems and budgets to respond appropriately."

(Japanese original by Rokuhei Sato, Kyushu News Department)