Ritsuo Hosokawa, justice minister in the Democratic Party of Japan's shadow Cabinet, says he succeeded in softening the tone of the government's immigration reform package.

"When I saw the original bills for the first time, my impression was that they allowed the government to control foreigners too much," said Hosokawa, a ranking DPJ member of the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee.

The Diet received the original bills from the government, written by officials of the Immigration Bureau and backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on March 6.