Japanese police have arrested five Chinese and one Japanese on suspicion of forging hundreds of residence cards to be issued to foreign residents in Japan.

The six under arrest all live in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo. They include Shen Zhiqiang, a 30-year-old Chinese part-time worker, four other Chinese nationals, and Maruyama Takahiro, a 34-year-old Japanese.

The police allege that the suspects violated the immigration control act by forging residence cards at Shen's home in early September. They believe the home was being used as a base for forgery.

A police raid of the house yielded more than 200 forged residence cards, as well as personal computers and printers.

The police have found records in the computers showing that the group had received around 20,000 orders for forged residence cards over a one-year period since August last year.

The records indicate that the group was selling forged cards for approximately 10 to 50 dollars apiece.

The police suspect that the group had operated under instructions from leaders based in China, who gathered the orders.

The police suspect there are other bases for forgery operations in Japan and are continuing their investigation.