Comments

Posts

95 Foreigners Refused Entry Since Nov. 20 Start of Fingerprinting System

Kyodo news is running a story today citing statistics that show quite a few foreigners have been kicked out of Japan after being caught by the new immigration system:

TOKYO — A total of 95 foreigners were refused entry into Japan in one month after Japan began fingerprinting and photographing foreign nationals at airports and seaports nationwide, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday. According to the Immigration Bureau, the number of foreign nationals who came to Japan totaled about 700,000 since the enforcement on Nov 20 of a revised immigration law.

According to a Japanese language Mainichi Shinbun article, the 94 of the 95 foreigners refused entry were found to be individuals on a list of persons previously deported from Japan. Of those 94, 77 had changed their names in an attempt to enter Japan under a new passport, while 17 had attempted entry with forged passports.

20 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - December 26, 2007 at 12:39 pm

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags: fingerprinting, foreigners, gaijin, immigration, japan, japanese

andoroido

Was 95 people refused entry over a month the normal rate BEFORE the fingerprinting?
Were these people actually caught because their fingerprints rang alarm bells? Or merely because their names were on a list? Or because they had shoddy fake passports?

Without any comparative figures, how can we know what this means?

Well we know what it really means, more government-media collusion in anti-foreigner propaganda.
http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

androido: The emphasis is that they were using false names, and what caught them were THEIR FINGERPRINTS. You can forge a name, but forging fingerprints is a slightly more difficult thing to do.

My original opinion is even stronger: This is a perfectly legitimate system.

andoroido

Sorry, but I tend to be a skeptic and read carefully, especially any story in which politics is combined with statistics.

Were all these 95 actually caught because of their fingerprints and/or photos? Or due to systems to confirm ID already in place before the fingerprint system? (wonky passport numbers, cheap faked passports, suspect behavior, screwing up answers to the interview questions, screwed up ,or lack of, visa or re-entry stamps, etc.) It is not explicitly stated in the short article, (if I’m wrong, please point out the part of the article which explicitly says so) thus I doubt ALL these 95 were caught solely because of their fingerprints, just a repeat of the “we caught 5 on the first day!” story back on Nov 20, in which it seems they were caught not due to fingerprints, but pre-existing procedures.

Did they catch 95 people IN TOTAL, for all reasons, since Nov 20? Then even simple logic would mean that at least SOME of them were caught for fake passports or reasons other than fingerprints. While maybe SOME actually were caught because of the fingerprint system. I just want a breakdown of how they were caught, but we’ll probably never get that info as it will be called “secret” and they don’t want to “help terrorists” by giving away data on what gives them away as illegal, be it bad passports, fingerprints, visa stamps, or whatever.

I’m not really opposed to the fingerprinting anyway, in regards to tourists and newcomers. But for long-term residents and taxpayers, even those of us who have lived here 10 plus years, it is insulting. Add in that they just should have been honest from the start that it was an immigration control procedure, rather than “anti-terrorism”. It is extra-insulting that they want to blame terrorism on foreigners, since all terrorism in Japan has been perpetrated by Japanese citizens. I think 75% of the opposition on this issue is solely based on this trend of xenophobic propaganda and the “watch out for gaijin (hanzai)!” craze.

topaz

Why do you all suppose this program was sold to the public as a terror prevention measure, when it’s clearly being used as a immigration fraud countermeasure?

D-san

Exactly what I was saying topaz, They sold the system on the grounds that it was to e used for anti-terrorism, yet now we see they just wanted to catch immigrants.

virax

shame that it doesnt go into detail about the origins of these foriengers. I heard that most of these criminals have been snapped up at the custom areas around japan sea port areas and that most of them stem from asian countries. Shame that in this photo that ‘foriegners’ are always sterotypicalised as white people with large noses.
wanna catch more crooks??? be more concrete with your information next time!
http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Virax: The caption on that image does not say that this is a foreign criminal, and the sample is clearly drawn by an amateur caricaturist.

What the caption says is, “Compulsory fingerprint and face shot for foreigners entering Japan.” The image does not seem to be from the news article (considering it’s clearly a screen shot from TV news), and seems to have been added by James as a visual tool.

http://www.japaneconomynews.com/ Ken

We know that 95 were caught in the first month that the system was put in place. What we don’t know is how many were caught in the 30 days before the system was put in, or over the same 30 day period in the previous calendar year.

Whether or not the system is valid is sort of beside the point here – what andoroido is saying relates to statistical analysis.

People should see a huge red flag when statistics are presented in such a sloppy manner, especially when Kyodo is simply printing a bullet-pointed press handout without asking any questions or doing any supplemental research.

Bottom line: Sloppy presentation of statistics looks suspicious. In school we learned to think critically and watch for such things, and we should be recognizing them in this report.

tjj

Ken is correct. Smart people will be alarmed when they see such sloppy reporting. But not everyone is smart, unfortunately (right Alex?).

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Touche. You are 2 legit to quit my man.

Hey, I’m a jaded foreigner from a Western nation who is now living in Japan. Maybe I should join the Cantankerous Japan Bitching Club (the good ol’ CJBC), because your ideas intrigue me and I wish to sign up for your newsletter! Then we can bitch about our selfishly-demanded freedoms which we perceive as owed to us as non-oath-bound guests in a foreign country, together! Oh joy! It might even be my New Year’s Resolution!

http://www.japaneconomynews.com/ Ken

Alex, I guess that’s the difference. Some of us – many of us – are oath-bound to Japan. Proud to be so. And you don’t speak for us.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

I wish they’d let me be! I’d give up my U.S. citizenship in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to reside in the country continuously for 5 years straight, therefore I don’t qualify. I’ve only been in and out of the country on different visas over the course of five years.

And of course any single naturalized Japanese citizen does not speak for the entire group (I would not want Arudou Debito speaking on my behalf for anything), just like a single government policy does not represent the wishes of an entire nation. (Permitted whaling does not mean all Japanese eat whale meat. A fingerprint system does not mean the nation is rampant with xenophobia)

Pingback: ROK Drop Weekly Linklets - 29DEC07 at ROK Drop
Anastasius

95 of 700.000! 0.00014% Am I the only seeing that? And if you could subtract the number of people they would have caught anyway it becomes even more mindboggling.

What a spectacular waste of money.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

The system being in place could also deter people from even trying. You can never really be sure about these things. But it’s always safe to buckle up when you go for a drive, just in case.

Pingback: 95 extranjeros no admitidos en Japón en Ajapon.com - Vida en Japón
Guranto

I am a permanent resident of Japan and I just returned to Japan this morning through KIX. It took me 75 minutes to get through immigration and I almost missed my connecting flight. An elderly couple was in front of me and it took 20 minutes for them to have their fingerprints scanned. I do not see why permanent residents need to go through this every time we enter the country, given all of the other checks we must go through (gaijin cards, re-entry permits, etc.) I find it humiliating and xenophobic. It took my wife, a Japanese National, only ten minutes.
Pingback: Secret Japan - Welcome to Japan, master foreigner
Pingback: Hot Air Ballooning | Grand Day Out
http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

What’s with this imposture? You know, it’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I’m just not feeling it, though.

Andoroido: I still don’t think it’s insulting to foreign residents in anyway, but I do understand your skepticism in regards to the newspaper article and its pretense in presenting the data as successful, whereas it may just be propaganda fed directly from the MoJ.

95 Foreigners Refused Entry Since Nov. 20 Start of Fingerprinting System

Recent Comments

Further Reading

Ceremony held for Japan’s unknown soldiers

Toru Hashimoto clarifies remarks on comfort women

Police raid on Vanity club in Roppongi highlights ridiculous Japanese laws that make dance clubs illegal

Video: Munenori Kawasaki post-game interview

Major South Korean newspaper: Atomic bombings were divine retribution. / “God may feel that retaliation against Japan hasn’t been complete.”

Korean man arrested for stabbing attack in Osaka / “I want to kill Japanese people”

Book Review: Kobe Blue

Report: Urban Sustainability Seminar in Tokyo

Elderly Japanese scammed into overpaying for obscure foreign currency

Is Japan really shifting further away from pacifism?

Categories

Subscribe

Japan Blogs

Korea Blogs

Linkroll

Other Asia Blogs