JapanProbe Friends - Featured Members


Prepare to Be Fingerprinted, Foreigners!

September 4th, 2007 by James

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.



Related Posts:
 

Permanent Residents Will Be Fingerprinted?

Video: Understanding Why Japanese Immigration Will Fingerprint All Foreigners

Making life easier for foreigners in Japan

Deported South Koreans attempted to bypass fingerprinting system with fake passports

Asahi cartoon about discrimination in Japan


RSS feed | Trackback URI

13 Comments »

Comment by Jackdaw
2007-09-04 14:49:51

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!

 
Comment by sod
2007-09-04 19:14:48

the worrying bit is not the checking of your identity its what they are going to use the data for when they keep it!

 
Comment by Stef
2007-09-04 19:25:32

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.

Comment by Turner
2007-09-05 14:16:52

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

 
 
Comment by 羽之助
2007-09-04 21:50:20

Because we all know that terrorists will turn back at the customs gate as soon as they realise they will be fingerprinted!

 
Comment by the overthinker
2007-09-04 22:55:10

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?

 
Comment by D-san
2007-09-06 09:23:05

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.

 
Comment by Sean Dempsey
2007-09-06 11:14:06

If you`re that worried, you can always file away your fingerprints using 220 grit sandpaper. It feels a little weird, but it works.

 
Comment by Eloy
2007-09-08 12:22:38

This video has been out for a while.

 
Comment by GI Korea
2007-09-09 08:47:16

If you are not going to Japan to commit crimes why should you care if your fingerprints are taken?

Comment by the overthinker
2007-09-09 09:35:04

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?

 
 
Name (required)
E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
URI
Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment. (Please close your HTML tags.)

If your comment isn't showing up, it's probably stuck in the spam filter or in moderation. Instead of typing the same comment over and over and sending it, contact us. Most comments are visible within a few minutes of their posting.
This site is not an open forum: we have rules. Read our discussion policy for more details.

Trackback responses to this post