Airport fingerprinting system prevented 846 foreigners from entering Japan

The Ministry of Justice has declared that the biometric fingerprint scanning systems it installed in airports last year have successfully prevented 846 would-be illegal immigrants from entering Japan:

The ministry, which released a report on the system’s first year results on Friday, added that the number of visa overstayers is down 35 percent, compared to the previous year.

“Those illegally entering the country to work are being prevented, and the efficiency of border measures is increasing,” it said.

A total of 748 people were expelled for trying to re-enter the country during the 5-year period following a previous deportation, including 290 Koreans, 137 Filipinos and 83 Chinese. A further 98 — 18 Filipinos, 16 Iranians and 10 Sri Lankans — were deported for using false passports.

There have also been a few cases of immigration identifying suspects wanted by police in connection with crimes through biometric information.

The announcement comes a few days after the government released the results of a survey in which 52% of respondents agreed that increased numbers of foreign tourists made them “concerned about public safety” and there was a need for the government to “take measures” to address such concerns. Oddly, none of the other possible responses to the question allowed survey takers to express their opinions on necessary government actions, so I can’t help but wonder if the whole survey was conducted to produce a result that would display the public’s support for new legislation to give the Justice Ministry more power to crack down on visa fraud.

The Japanese language story about the survey appeared on Yahoo! News, and the top-voted comment (10,690 “I agree” votes) might give one a good idea of the kind of public safety concerns a few survey takers might have been thinking about:

Real tourists should be welcomed.
The problem is those who enter as tourists and become illegal overstayers.
Especially Chinese and Koreans.

The second highest rated comment (8,052 “I agree” votes) made reference to revisions to the nationality law being discussed in the Diet:

People are this worried about tourism, but what if the nationality law is revised?! It will be a free-for-all of crime and espionage!

There were also comments about the bad manners of some Asian tourists, and and a few calling for Japan to once again close itself off from the outside world. Some level-headed realists were also present in the comment thread, pointing out that the new tourism agency and new government policies will only funnel money into corrupt amakudari organizations.

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