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Divided Opinions Over Fingerprinting Foreigners

A survey currently running over at Japan Guide is asking users whether they support Japan’s new immigration system, which fingerprints all foreigners when they enter Japan. Here is a screen capture of the current status of the results along with the individual results for IP addresses from certain countries:

As you can see, there is not a clear overall majority in opposition of the new system. Those voting from America and Great Britain, countries that have fingerprinting procedures at their airports, actually show a lot of support for Japan’s system. The other large English-speaking countries, Canada and Australia (which don’t fingerprint all foreigners) show a slight majority in opposition to the system. The strongest opposition to the system comes from those voting from Japanese IP addresses, who are most likely expats that will experience regularly fingerprinting upon re-entry to their country of residence.

Let’s try the exact same survey question here at Japan Probe and see how it turns out:

As of November 20, foreigners get fingerprinted and photographed upon entry into Japan. What do you think?

34 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - December 5, 2007 at 8:01 pm

Categories: Discrimination, Foreigners in Japan Tags: fingerprinting, foreigners, gaijin, japan

mg2003

Hang on, aren’t “bad idea” and “a reason not to visit Japan” showing opposition to it?
That means only visitors from the US are by majority for the system. UK is 42% opposed…

Gojira

That was my thought when I saw this. “Good idea” and “Neutral” aren’t at all the same thing, but people could easily be split between “Bad idea” and “a reason not to visit Japan” since they’re similar sentiments.
http://bonesworld-gooch.blogspot.com/ Bones

42% opposed means 58% support. If you are not “against” something, then you are by default “for” it, in my book.

Gojira

By said logic, that would mean if you’re “undecided” then you’re already “decided.” I think you’re misunderstanding people in general.

The Overthinker

“All that is necessary for the triumph of good is for evil men to do nothing”….
http://bonesworld-gooch.blogspot.com/ Bones

Gojira: Not quite – if you are “undecided” then you are allowing others to decide for you. The results are as The Overthinker said (aside from him turning around the “good” and “evil” parts of Edmund Burke’s original quote).
The Overthinker

I switched them deliberately. Seems to work fine both ways….

http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

The UK doesn’t have fingerprinting, as far as I am aware. I voted neutral, by the way.

I’d love to see a proper survey done on this topic.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

Whoops, I guess I was under the impression that the UK fingerprinted foreigners, when in fact it is beginning fingerprinting its own citizens: http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/article2066498.ece
ponta

http://puget.cocolog-nifty.com/ryokan/2007/11/post_43a4.html

It seems the Japanese applying for UK Visa are being fingerprinted.
http://bonesworld-gooch.blogspot.com/ Bones

Tourists are not fingerprinted on arrival in the UK. Those applying for other visas from their home countries are fingerprinted as part of the application process.

shazzb0t

It is a good idea, but… it just sucks. I’ll be coming back for a bit in January. I don’t even want to know what the wait will be like..
http://tofusando.blogspot.com Akoua Doffou

My dad thinks fingerprinting is a good idea and he’s American, but I am neutral on it. I won’t have to undergo it until I’m 16.
http://www.blogger-for-freedom.org/en Simon Columbus

The stats just show how many Americans have become used to so-called anti-terror laws.

And all the others too… Germany fingerprints ALL its citizens, really bad!

That they are not seriously fighting terrorism is a fact. But most people do not know anything about scoring, data mining, so governments all over the world can get through with calling surveying their own citizen the war on terror.
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Pingback: Blogger for Freedom » Blog Archive » Petition and blog against fingerprinting of immigrating foreigners in Japan
Dave

I am not a permanent resident of Japan (but if it matters, I have lived there for an extended period of time) and I think there should be another poll option — “only for temporary visitors” or something to that effect.

While I don’t like the idea of being treated like a criminal and getting fingerprinted, I could accept it as a visitor/foreigner. However, permanent residents (of any country) should be afforded similar entry privileges granted to citizens since it’s the same “coming home” that citizens feel (or used to be).

http://bonesworld-gooch.blogspot.com/ Bones

As a PR, I don’t like the fingerprinting only because it only applies to us “normal” PRs while the “special” PRs zainichi) get a free pass. If you are trying to “fight terrorism” you need to target those groups most likely to engage in same – and in Japan that means Japanese and Zainichi. Since the law states that Japanese citizens can only be fingerprinted as part of being charged with a criminal offense, that leaves the Zainichi. The Justice Ministry is basically wimping out – they want to look like they are “doing something” but don’t want to have to tussle with the Zainichi again, so they let them off the hook.

J-ude

Aren’t Zainichi’s a term generally used towards (not the technical definition) Chinese/Koreans born in Japan? Why should they be treated the same as visitors, when most are 2nd/3rd gen? Also, considering the fact that many of these Zainichi natives, until a few years ago, could get arrested for not carrying their ID around, which was sort of a cultural shock for me (and I speak from personal experience).

ponta

When I hear Zainichi, only Zainichi Koreans comes to mind first.
And I guess technically they could get arrested for
not carrying their ID around, but practically you can not tell the Japanese from the Zainichi Koreans from the way they look, they speak. So I am not sure
how many cases were actually reported that Zainich Koreans were arrested just because they didn’t bring their ID.
http://bonesworld-gooch.blogspot.com/ Bones

To J-Ude: “Why should they be treated the same as visitors?” How about “Why should they not be treated the same as normal PRs?” They may have been born here, perhaps even 3rd or now 4th generation born in Japan, but they aren’t (by choice!) citizens. If non-Japanese have to jump through certain hoops, then all non-Japanese should have to jump through the same hoops. I don’t believe in special treatment for someone just because their group bitches the loudest. Especially when it has been proven that members of that group have been guilty of exactly what it is this procedure is supposed to be “protecting” Japan from.
The Overthinker

Well, the answer is clear: bitch louder.

http://www.japaneconomynews.com/ Ken

nice post. Interesting to see the different opinions. I suppose Americans figure if it’s going on there, it’s ok elsewhere.
http://bonesworld-gooch.blogspot.com/ Bones

“As you can see, there is not a clear overall majority in opposition of the new system.”

I don’t see how one can arrive at that position. Overall, 34% think it is a “good idea” and 23% are “neutral”, which is to say they don’t think it is “bad” and therefore de facto support it. 34 + 23 = 57, which is a “clear majority”.

The only group where a “clear majority” opposes the system is the “in Japan” group, which (being as the poll is taken on an English-language blog) is probably not a good sample group, as it would be heavily biased by PRs and long-term residents who are now shocked, shocked I say, to discover that they have to get in the same lines as the unwashed tourist masses. If you work it out, the “in Japan” group is only 17% of the vote total overall, yet they make up 30% of the “bad idea” vote total and 22% of the “reason not to visit Japan” vote total – yet I doubt many of them will be leaving in protest. Conversely, they make up less than 10% of the “good idea” vote total, and 13% of the “neutral” vote total.
http://www.keepingpaceinjapan.com Turner

Bones has a point – the Japan group is the only one showing marked differences in opinion from the rest of the world; if we could see a breakdown between visitors, permanent residents, and Japanese, that would make things clearer (obviously for the last reason, whether Japanese think the policy will stop others from visiting).
Mike

Does anyone else notice that the countries where there is a larger number of people saying it is a bad idea than a good idea, haven’t been attacked by terrorists… Hmmmm, I wonderif there is any logic there.

Joseph K

Plenty of terrorist spiel gets spewed out by the Australian government – it was one of the new governments platforms, for instance – and a good many Australians have been the victims of terrorist attacks overseas. Including bombings in Bali, which, due to its popularity as a nearby tourist destination, caused many to feel as though it was an attack on Australia.

RMilner

Being neutral towards something means being neither for nor against it.

It means you do not support either side.

Sweden was neutral in WW2. Did that mean they support the Axis or the Alloes?

http://bonesworld-gooch.blogspot.com/ Bones

There is a difference between being a state that refuses to get embroiled in others’ conflicts and being an individual offering an opinion on policy, particularly if you are living in the country where such a policy is in effect. By not taking a stand, you are allowing policy to be determined for you, which is the same as supporting that policy. For example, not all Germans supported the Nazis. Only a minority did. However, an even smaller minority opposed the Nazis. There was a large group in the middle which was “neutral” – they neither actively supported the Nazi cause, but neither did they oppose it or support those who were opposed to it. Result: the Nazis were able to come to power and hold onto it. By not opposing the Nazis, and by fighting for Germany even if saying “I am not a Nazi”, Average Joe German was supporting the Nazi Party.

Not that I am trying to draw parallels between Nazism an fingerprinting, I will let the whinge brigade do that, this is merely an example from history.

But if asked “Here is the policy. What is your opinion?” By saying “I have none” you are allowing tat policy to stand or go into effect, which is the same as supporting it. It’s a cop-out. People who do that have a bad habit later of saying “Well, I never supported it!” Well, by not taking a stand and allowing the policy to take/remain in effect, they did support it.

RMilner

Let’s put the semantic meaning of neutral on one side and look at the practicalities of the survey.

It is not a referendum on the fingerprinting. The policy has been brought in by the government and cannot be overturned just by an opinion survey.

If it is not acceptable to hold a neutral opinion (there are various reasons why a responder might hold a neutral opinion) then that response should not be available in the replies.

Anastasius

My poor braincells. Neutral means neutral unless it’s beneficial to my cause and keeps the evil terrists out……

Every country, except America, shows a majority opposed to fingerprinting. That’s how people who passed the 5th class interpret the poll.
Aji

I think it’s good idea to get fingerprinted and photographed. It will help a lot to Japan to decrease crime rate or entry of criminal.

Now Japan should start to scan the CD, DVD and Laptop of all passengers coming from the overseas. As I noticed a lot of IT professionals coming in Japan these days. It is also possible some of them are carrying pirated music or software. Japan Government can prevent piracy of software and music by scanning CD, DVD or Laptops at the airports.

Some IT professionals first come on 3 months visa. In some cases these people don’t have permission to work in Japan, but they worked freely in Japan with the help of their native countries software company that setup office in Japan. Later they update their visa in Japan very easily. They live in this manner up to one year or two years. Japan government can check how many these IT professionals are paying their tax honestly. They continuously live in Japan more than one year and paying their tax in their native country, where they are not showing their income in Japan.

Aki

Please recommend your good idea to your own country rather than to Japan.

Mel

I think it is sort of a bad idea because it’s not like Americans and other countries are ‘bad’ or ‘dangerous’ Yeah, some people are bad, but they have bad people in Japan too.

Divided Opinions Over Fingerprinting Foreigners

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