Prepare to Be Fingerprinted, Foreigners!
Japan is spreading the word to its neighbors about a new rule that singles out all foreigners entering the country as potential terrorists, the Taipei Times reports:
The Japanese government plans to dispatch officials to four Asian locations, including Taiwan, later this month to brief the public about the imminent implementation of a fingerprinting policy at gateways to Japan, a Japanese daily reported yesterday.
The Mainichi Shimbun said that beginning Nov. 1, all foreign visitors will have their fingerprints taken at customs upon entering into Japan after an amendment to entrance management laws is brought into force. The amendment, aimed at keeping terrorists at bay, was passed by the Japanese Diet in 2004.
Officials from the Japanese Ministry of Justice are expected to visit Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and South Korea this month to meet journalists and travel agencies to give people of the four countries and areas a better understanding of the fingerprinting policy
Confused about the new rule? We’ve posted about the Japanese government’s educational propaganda video on this rule before. You might also want to check out Keeping Pace in Japan, which is trying to organize protests against the fingerprinting rule.
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Nice to see that “national policy” in Japan can still be a source of great humor and entertainment for the rest of the “civilized world”!
Keep it up Japan – we all love a good laugh!
the worrying bit is not the checking of your identity its what they are going to use the data for when they keep it!
I’ll be landing in japan on the 1st of Nov at 7 in the morn. I’ll be one of the first guinea pigs to be targeted by this new fingerprint and photo recording scheme.
Sounds like fun…
Wonder how long this kind of policy will last this time around.
Stef, pass me your contact info if you could – I want to hear from the first foreigners to go through the process.
realtome05@yahoo.com
Because we all know that terrorists will turn back at the customs gate as soon as they realise they will be fingerprinted!
While this is largely a tit-for-tat response to the asinine American rule about fingerprints and photos, it’s puzzling that foreigners with valid re-entry permits are required to be fingerprinted. Since they have, after all, already been given permission from the GOJ to be in Japan – and presumably the process to get a visa would weed out more terrorists than just fingerprinting tourists….
Or is this just a way for the totalitarian Ministry of Injustice to get gaijin fingerprints again after they were forced by Zainichi efforts to finally stop?
This just comes from Xenophobic people in Japan who hold enough influence to sway the gov’t. into doing something to show that they seem to have the same ridiculous mindset.
If you`re that worried, you can always file away your fingerprints using 220 grit sandpaper. It feels a little weird, but it works.
This video has been out for a while.
If you are not going to Japan to commit crimes why should you care if your fingerprints are taken?
Because of the strong implication that we *are* going to commit crimes. After all, why take our prints if you don’t think you’ll need them?