It no surprise that Japan would be requesting fingerprints of all entering non- resident foriegners. The country has been known for its nativism for centuries. Recently it was found that the genealogical line of the Japanese Emporer had roots in Korea. Of course this has been mostly kept a secret. (Info. from Marilyn Ivy's- "Discourses of the Vanishing," University of Chicago Press)
We could blame terrorists for this xenophobic move, but I think its much more complicated than just the activities of Osama Bin Laden and his cohort. There are many other reasons people are afraid.
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October 26, 2007
Japan to Fingerprint Foreign Visitors
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:57 a.m. ET
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan hopes to thwart potential terrorists from entering the country by fingerprinting and photographing all foreigners aged 16 or over on entry starting next month, an official said Friday.
Only some permanent residents, diplomatic visitors, and children under 16 will be exempt from the measures after the system goes into effect Nov. 20, Immigration Bureau official Takumi Sato said.
Under the new system, all adults will be photographed and fingerprinted on arrival in Japan. Incoming aircraft and ship operators also will be obliged to provide passenger and crew lists before they arrive.
Resident foreigners will be required to go through the procedure every time they re-enter Japan.
Immigration officials will run the images and data through a database of international terror and crime suspects as well as against domestic crime records. People matching the data on file will be denied entry and deported.
''We hope the system will help keep terrorists out of the country, and also put at ease the minds of both the Japanese people and the foreigners who come here,'' Sato said.
The bureau plans to store the data for ''a long time,'' Sato said, while refusing to disclose how long due to security concerns.
It is unclear how many people will be affected; Japan saw 8.11 million foreign entries in 2006, Sato said.
Opponents of the new system say the measures amount to discrimination against foreigners and a violation of their right to privacy.
Tokyo's staunch support of the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and dispatch of forces to each region have raised concerns that Japan could become the target of deadly terror attacks.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Japan-Fingerprinting-Foreigners.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
1 comment:
I'm a Permanent Resident of Japan, from the UK and have lived here since 1994. Japan has never been attacked by foreign terrorists and if such attack is likely it will happen overseas. Japan has been attacked by home grown terrorists. The introduction of fingerprinting is against the Japanese Constitution which affords protection to all peoples who are in Japan and not just Japanese nationals.
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