[Blog]Digitalization of Immigration Procedures and API Integration — From Point-Based Screening to Continuous Institutional Infrastructure —

2026-05-20

1. The Question

Why are immigration procedures so burdensome?

Application forms, supporting documents, employment contracts, tax certificates, social insurance records, organizational information. Foreign nationals, employers, immigration lawyers, and government agencies repeatedly verify, submit, and review the same information.

Yet despite this administrative burden, the system still cannot be said to function effectively.

The issue is not simply whether procedures are paper-based or digital.

More fundamentally, immigration procedures remain disconnected from other institutional systems.

The Balanced Coexistence Model understands this problem as a transition from “point-based screening” to a “continuous institutional framework.”

2. Current Immigration Procedures Operate as “Points”

Current immigration procedures are largely conducted as one-time assessments based on information submitted at a specific moment.

Certificates of Eligibility, changes of status, extensions of stay — all are judged based on documents submitted at the time of application.

However, the lives and employment situations of foreign nationals do not exist only at the moment of application.

Employment changes. Addresses change. Income changes. Social insurance enrollment and tax status change. Family structures and living conditions also evolve.

Despite this reality, the current system lacks sufficient mechanisms to continuously understand and monitor these changes.

As a result, immigration review operates as isolated “points,” while actual lives unfold continuously as “lines.”

This creates a structural gap between institutions and reality.

3. Digitalization Alone Is Not Enough

The digitalization of immigration procedures is necessary.

Online applications, electronic attachments, digital notifications, and data storage can reduce administrative burdens and improve efficiency.

However, simply converting paper into PDFs or replacing physical counters with online portals does not solve the underlying problem.

This merely changes the format of procedures while leaving institutional fragmentation intact.

What is truly necessary is to redesign immigration procedures not as isolated administrative processes, but as institutional infrastructure connected to employment, taxation, social insurance, finance, housing, and education.

4. What Is API Integration?

This is where API integration becomes important.

An API is a method that allows different systems to securely exchange necessary information.

In the immigration context, API integration means that immigration administration no longer functions in isolation, but instead connects, within appropriate limits, with related institutions and services.

For example, residence status, visa expiration dates, sponsoring organizations, work authorization, addresses, employment contracts, social insurance, taxation, bank accounts, and housing contracts could be connected under proper consent and authorization frameworks.

This transforms immigration administration from one-time verification into continuous institutional coordination.

5. What API Integration Changes

API integration would fundamentally transform immigration administration.

First, it would improve residence status management.

If foreign nationals, employers, financial institutions, insurance providers, and housing managers could verify visa validity within appropriate limits, expiration issues and missed renewals could be prevented more effectively.

Second, changes in employment status could be identified earlier.

Resignation, job changes, contract modifications, or significant reductions in working hours could be recognized as institutional risks before problems become severe, allowing support and verification measures to begin earlier.

Third, integration with taxation and social insurance systems would make it easier to confirm not only formal immigration status but also the stability of a person’s actual living foundation.

Fourth, it would reduce the explanatory burden on applicants themselves.

Individuals would no longer need to repeatedly prove information already held by government agencies or related institutions.

6. This Is Not “Surveillance” but “Prevention”

An important clarification is necessary.

API integration is not intended to create a surveillance society.

The Balanced Coexistence Model does not seek constant monitoring of foreign nationals.

Rather, it seeks to prevent a structure in which institutional fragmentation leaves problems unresolved until the individual alone bears the consequences.

The objective is not to search for violators.

The objective is to identify risks such as unstable residence status, employment mismatches, lack of social insurance enrollment, or loss of living foundations at an early stage, while intervention and repair remain possible.

This represents preventive administration rather than enforcement-centered administration.

7. Consent and Access Control

Of course, API integration requires careful institutional design.

Immigration-related information directly affects individuals’ lives, employment, families, and social credibility. It must therefore never be shared without limits.

Necessary safeguards include informed consent, purpose limitation, minimum necessary use, access authorization control, access history management, and correction procedures.

Who can access which information, and for what purpose?

Can individuals verify what information is being shared?

How can incorrect information be corrected?

Without these protections, API integration would become not infrastructure for trust, but infrastructure for distrust.

8. Immigration Management as a “Continuous System”

The Balanced Coexistence Model proposes transforming immigration management from “point-based screening” into a “continuous institutional framework.”

Point-based screening evaluates only documents submitted at a specific moment.

A continuous system connects residence status, employment, daily life, social insurance, taxation, finance, and housing on an ongoing basis while continuously supporting and verifying stability.

Through this transformation, immigration systems become not merely mechanisms for approval or denial, but infrastructure supporting stable living foundations.

Residence status is not merely an administrative label.

It is the institutional foundation that enables individuals to work, live, and plan their futures within Japanese society.

9. Connection to RegTech

As discussed in Chapter 13, RegTech is not simply government digitalization.

It is implementation technology designed to ensure that institutions continue functioning effectively over time.

API integration within immigration procedures is a concrete example of this concept.

To maintain explainability, consistency, and predictability at the operational level, institutional systems must be connected.

When information remains fragmented, authorities cannot fully understand reality, employers struggle to fulfill responsibilities, and individuals must repeatedly prove the same facts.

API integration provides the institutional infrastructure necessary to resolve this fragmentation.

10. Conclusion

The digitalization of immigration procedures is not merely a matter of convenience.

It is structural reform necessary to make institutions trustworthy.

Simply converting paper processes into digital forms will not transform the system.

What is required is the redesign of immigration procedures as a continuous institutional framework connected to employment, social insurance, taxation, finance, housing, and education.

The key to this transformation is API integration.

However, API integration must be designed not for surveillance, but for prevention and support.

Only when supported by informed consent, purpose limitation, access control, and correction mechanisms can it become infrastructure for trust.

The Balanced Coexistence Model does not seek systems that merely control foreign nationals.

It seeks institutional infrastructure that is properly connected and that people can safely rely upon.

When immigration procedures evolve from “point-based screening” into “continuous institutional systems,” immigration administration itself can transform from a source of distrust into infrastructure that sustains trust.

※ This article is positioned as a chapter within the table of contents of the Balanced Coexistence Model.