Japan sees gold smuggling surge in 2017

February 24, 2018

Tokyo- The number of cases of gold smuggling into Japan in 2017 surged 66 pct from the previous year to a record 1,347, the Finance Ministry said Friday.

The volume of gold seized by customs officials increased some 2.2-fold to 6,236 kilograms, also a record high, according to the ministry.

Smugglers profit by selling gold in Japan at prices including consumption tax.

In 2008, there were only four attempts to illegally bring gold into the country. But the figure began to surge following the consumption tax hike from 5 percent to 8 percent in April 2014. Both the number of gold smuggling cases and the amount of confiscated gold rewrote record highs for four years in a row through last year.

"The situation is serious," a ministry official said.

Most of the cases involved air travelers, and about 90 percent of gold confiscated came from South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The ministry also said that customs officials cracked down on 784 cases of smuggling illegal drugs in 2017, down 12 percent year on year, and seized a total of 1,379 kilograms of such drugs, down 16 percent.

While the overall number of cases dropped, stimulant smuggling jumped 45 percent to 151 cases, with the seizure amount topping 1,000 kilograms for the second straight year at 1,159 kilograms.

An increasing number of female air passengers in their 20s to 30s from Thailand and Malaysia act as couriers, according to the ministry. Jiji Press