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Should Japan Shift to 10-Finger Immigration Screening?

February 6th, 2008 by James

scan-10-fingers

The U.S. government wants Japan to do just that:

Robert Mocny, head of the US-Visit Program of the department, told Kyodo News the U.S. government is “willing to talk with the government of Japan to follow what we’ve done,” referring to the 10-finger system the United States has launched at some airports since November.

Mocny stopped short of saying by when Japan should upgrade the biometrics screening from the current method, just introduced in November, of taking the fingerprints of two fingers and photographing the face of an arriving visitor.

“Accuracy is one reason why we’re doing this,” the U.S. official said. People might be identified erroneously with two index fingerprints at airports and other ports of entry and temporarily detained without good reason but taking eight more fingerprints will help reduce such risks, Mocny said.

Mocny defended the current screening arrangement despite complaints by some, saying, “It’s important to the people of America and the people who visit America that they have a safe and law-abiding society.”

Do you think Japan should upgrade?
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14 Comments »

Comment by The Overthinker
2008-02-06 16:23:39

All these people are political wimps. The only sensible solution is to ban all international travel, and in fact all domestic travel that involves public transportation systems, including roads. Restrict everyone’s movements to how far they can walk and we’ll stop the threat of terrorism dead. At least after we ban all public spaces and confine people to their homes. But it’s the only way to be truly safe, and we all want to be safe, right? Isn’t it worth it to save even one life?

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Comment by francois
2008-02-06 16:53:44

a friend of mine, tall blond French girl, scanned her 2 fingers at Narita immigration after coming back from her xmas holidays in France
the officer’s eyes grew wide, she looked on his computer screen and saw a mugshot of a small dark Filipino woman
they detained her for over an hour for questioning even though she didn’t look ANYTHING like that mugshot and was obviously the victim of a software mistake

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Comment by Irene
2008-02-06 17:12:28

I can’t believe the national travel is becoming less and less strict in terms of security in the U.S. I’m not a U.S. resident btw. They don’t even check my ID when checking in (with e-tickets) or when boarding, and only once, when I enter the x-ray section. They don’t even seem to open our baggages at random any more either. Meanwhile, international security is becoming stricter.. hm interesting.

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Comment by Bad Wolf
2008-02-06 19:27:06

I don’t get the US government and their paranoid obsession with forcing Japan to follow their lead. Is Japan a hotbed of terrorism? Are there sleeper cells lurking about in this country waiting to strike the US? Is Narita a crossroads of terrorist travel? Just what or whom do they expect to find in Japanese airports? Small dark Filipinas?

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Comment by The Overthinker
2008-02-07 00:28:54

“Is Narita a crossroads of terrorist travel?”

The cops certainly seem to think so (hope so)….

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Comment by moji
2008-02-06 19:45:46

gaiatsu gaiatsu!

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Comment by Tadashi
2008-02-06 20:10:57

Wait, two fingerprints giving a false detection?
Maybe they should just upgrade the software to compare more points, since one fingerprint is already unique by 99,9%. Two persons with two same fingerprints should be near impossible and a photo helps to avoid even such a theoretical case.

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Comment by Brad
2008-02-07 00:05:05

I think that the US needs to stay out of other peoples business, All they do is try to make people/ countries do what the want them to do. I live next to the US and I can say I don’t like going there any more then I have to. I really hope that Japan tells the US to stick it. what they have now is just fine.

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Comment by Willie
2008-02-07 00:47:01

Bad Wolf,

Osama bin Goldstein is not the reason.

The US wants all countries to do this. They exchange the information, or buy it from a data company. The Japanese contract was a low-cost deal in the Caribbean so there’s no control over what happens with the data.

The US wants the prints for US citizens very much, but they can’t just force it, not quite yet.

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Comment by Karisu
2008-02-07 06:11:35

“It’s important to the people of America and the people who visit America that they have a safe and law-abiding society.”

Well, it sure as hell isn’t important to this American. I’d like to see crap like this gone from America and Japan (as well as any other country).

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Comment by Kevin
2008-02-07 10:09:58

So when do they start collecting DNA samples? Just get it over with already because that’s where they’re heading.
I’m from the US and this makes me furious. It’s disgusting having to watch my wife have to deal with this crap every time we enter the country.

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Comment by Irene
2008-02-07 16:19:28

well we do the same thing when we enter the U.S.. I got so used to it that I don’t think twice about it, it became just a mundane thing.

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Comment by The Overthinker
2008-02-07 16:56:33

“got so used to it that I don’t think twice about it, it became just a mundane thing.”

And that is how freedom dies….

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Comment by Irene
2008-02-07 17:08:40

Oh yeah true -_-;

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