Thinking about visiting Japan? You might want to think twice. Starting tomorrow, they’re going to start fingerprinting foreigners again at immigrations. By foreigners I mean tourists, students and business workers with valid visas, and even permanent residents. It’s expected that the lines at immigration will now take at least an hour, whereas those with visas and permanent residence could previously bypass the long and understaffed “foreigners” line. If this isn’t egregious enough, the fingerprints get stored in a database for an “unspecified time” (read: forever) and are available to every local police station and foreign government that requests them. Framing someone for a crime has never been easier!
Apparently they used to do this awhile back until the human rights groups (like Amnesty International) made a stink, and the law was repealed in 2000. But someone dropped the word “terrorism” and everyone’s brains magically turned off. It doesn’t matter that Japan has never been the target of a foreign terrorist attack. Remember the sarin nerve gas attack on the subway? Japanese radicals. Japanese Red Army attacks back in the 70′s? Oh, that’s right, those were attacks BY Japanese terrorists on foreign soil. Oops. Maybe I’m just dense, but I simply cannot see the connection between foreigners in Japan and terrorism.
Previous proposed legislation to fingerprint all Japanese citizens has been met with outrage. So why do they think it’s any more acceptable to do it to a smaller group of law-abiding people? I’m not a criminal. If Japan is going to treat me like one, it’s tempting to just not come back.
Edit: (I should make a note that Slashdot also posted my submission about this, so you can read the comments there as well.)
Oh c’mon! America has been doing this for years, and now all the sudden Japan is the bad country for doing this?!
So YOU don’t have to be fingerprinted unless you apply for a visa again? Or is it when you leave the country and come back in (like in January)? When you say tempted not to come back, do you mean for a visit later, or after Christmas vacation?
Regardless of visa status, all foreigners entering Japan are fingerprinted, and rumor also has it that foreigners will be fingerprinted when leaving Japan as well. I’m not sure what they plan to do to people who refuse to have their fingerprints taken when they leave, but they probably haven’t thought it through that far.
Tomas, while it’s true that the U.S. is doing it, that doesn’t make it right for everyone else to do so. If nothing else, Japan and the rest of the world should be pointing fingers at the United States and turning up the political heat. But by adopting the same measures itself, it just looks like Japan’s historic xenophobia is coming back with a vengeance.
What’s your problem on leaving your fingerprints? They have all your info anyway.
I’m not so much against the fingerprinting as a rule… you have to do it at the bank now and at other places, it was only a matter of time before this would come next. what I do think is insane is that they are going to do it EVERY time you enter Japan. There are a lot of people in business and other jobs and such that require them to travel in and out frequently, and that is going to be such a hassle. Your fingerprints don’t change, I don’t see why for the foreign residents and people who travel there more than X number of times per year can’t have some sort of card made up that would exempt them from having to go through that each time. Pictures should be done like once a year or something. That would save a lot of time and frustration for people who have to do the fingerprinting, and people who do a lot of traveling there.
Next thing you know we are going to be like Gattaca and have to give a blood sample for anything we do, and everything will be genetically determined. Creepy.
Jenny’s right. Very creepy!! It does seem wasteful to repeat it over and over again for frequent visitors. I think her ideas should be considered.
No, they do not currently have my fingerprints, or my retina scan, or my DNA. They have a photograph of me, my birthdate, my address, my nationality, my name. Certainly it’s not “all my info”. I need to be identified when entering the country. That’s unavoidable.
The problem is the existence of a database linking fingerprints up with names and addresses and whatever else. If they wanted to check EVERYONE’S prints against a list of “bad people” on immigration I could almost understand that. It would be an affront to my dignity but I could deal with it because it applies equally to everyone. But why just foreigners? And what excuse do governments have to KEEP them indefinitely? Is that in case one of those people goes and commits a terrorist act, and handily leaves their fingerprints on the evidence? Sorry, that doesn’t fly. I won’t even get into the issues of fingerprinting being synonymous with criminals. It’s an affront to human dignity and common sense.
There’s only one conclusion I can draw from the evidence. This is information they’re going to use to track, catalog, and control us. First they edged it on the foreigners, and nobody stood up. Next they’ll start pushing it on the rest of the international travelers, and nobody will stand up. Then they’ll compel college entrants and people applying for or renewing drivers’ licenses. By the time they force it on everyone else, 90% of people will already have their prints on file for one reason or another, and the excuse will be, “They have all your info anyway.” And then in a few years nobody will think anything wrong of it. After all, we’ve always been at war with Oceania.
I love literary references!
I’m not proud of it, but my friend and I were arrested in Funabashi in 2001 for being drunk in public at 2am (and I was not carrying my Gaijin-card – I think thats a crime, too).
They told me I could sober up and go home… They kept me for 10 days, and didn’t inform anyone where I was for 3!
I was fingerprinted at the time, and they told me that it would be kept in the system for 5 years (so, until end of 2006).
If I get fingerprinted again, well… what happens if my record (assuming it still exists) shows up? What if they lied about that too?
As an aside, there seemed to have been a rash of arrests of Kiwis that year – after I returned to NZ a couple of months later, I saw a TV story about NZ’ers who had been arrested and detained in Japan (possibly illegally).
…Fingerprinted when *leaving* the country? I am *SO* going to refuse that! I wonder what happens if I refuse an exit print- refusal of entry next time I try to come in to Japan? Damnit! Time to forge my fingerprints!
Never mind, apparently Gummi-bears defeat the fingerprint sensors.
F%&/edGaijin