Pubdate: Sat, 24 Apr 1999 Source: Mainichi Shimbun (Japan) Website: http://www.mainichi.co.jp/ JAPAN, CHINA FIGHTING CRIME Japan and China have finally built the chassis of a vehicle that will allow both countries to work together in a joint crusade against crime. Though the framework for joint Sino-Japanese police work is still new, the surge in crimes committed by Chinese criminals in Japan prompted the National Policy Agency to send a delegation of 10 officials to China to improve cooperation with their Chinese counterparts in Beijing, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. At Japan's request, Chinese public security officials have also agreed to consult with National Police Agency officials on a regular basis. Snakeheads, or smugglers who traffic in large groups of illegal Chinese immigrants, loosely organized Chinese underworld groups and the Shanghai mafia present the major challenges to Japanese law-enforcement authorities. Japan must depend on cooperation from China's public security apparatus in order to stamp out the smuggling of guns, drugs, and illegal aliens. Chinese criminal syndicates are believed to have established relationships with the Japanese underworld. However, snakeheads and other crime groups do not have the pyramid-like organizational structures of Japanese crime syndicates, so it is difficult to gauge their influence and to determine the types of arrangements that they have worked out with their Japanese partners. During the first three months of this year, Japanese police confiscated a record 652 kilograms of narcotics. Most of these substances came from China and were uncovered at the waterfront with the help of Chinese authorities. But the confiscated drugs amount to only a fraction of the estimated 6 tons of narcotics consumed annually by drug users in Japan. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake