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New Procedures in Entering Japan for Foreigners


I'm afraid that info is woefully out of date...

BBC NEWS | Americas | US fingerprints 'allied' visitors
 

What is this police report ? Is it only for people who need a visa before going to the country ? I never heard that Japanese or American people needed it to come to Europe.

Visa application is free in Japan ? Do you mean the application or the visa itself once the application is accepted ?
 
Taiko666 said:
I'm afraid that info is woefully out of date...
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US fingerprints 'allied' visitors
Click to expand...
I see. Anyway I do not feel keen to go there as long as the authorities treat forigners as potential terrorists. I think I would not like to be among paranoid patriotic poeple who regard common tourists as potential terrorists.

So far all terrorism in Japan were committed by japanese, but now forigners will be treated with suspision.
 
What is this police report ?
Your government describe it as follows:

The visa fee
http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/visa/visa_fee.pdf

The reason why the fee for Iranian people is a bit more expensive, 23GBP for a single visa, must be that the Iranian visa has been one of the most difficult and expensive one for Japanese nationals to get it. It has nothing to do with the current politics at all.
 

Indeed... when the US started fingerprinting I decided I'd never go there again unless absolutely necessary.
 
TAIKO666 said:
Indeed... when the US started fingerprinting I decided I'd never go there again unless absolutely necessary.
Click to expand...
In the not to distant future ALL countries will require it. It's the way things are becoming, and not only fingerprints, look for stories that will require DNA also. The goal is to have everyones DNA on record. They will use the farce "in the name of safety" and they will first start with criminals and pedophiles for which the majority of people will be all for it. When the news and politicians are quoted as saying "It's for the children" be wary, be VERY wary.
 

I had to mail a VHS tape with a CD-Rom to my cousin yesterday and since it is over 10 ounces with postage stamps, I can't just pop it into the mailbox anymore, now I have to go and hand it to a post office clerk. It is the sign of the times we live in.

I don't have a problem with fingerprinting, BTW.

Pachipro said:
When the news and politicians are quoted as saying "It's for the children" be wary, be VERY wary.
Click to expand...

Thanks to the Clintons, you are exactly right!
 
My company just sent an email to all employees in Japan (lots) regarding the change.

The only new part was "Line at immigration counters according to your status. There will now be three types of counters: (1) non-Japanese, (2) non-Japanese who hold re-entry permits, (3) Japanese citizens." and "自らの身分に応じて入国カウンターにお進み下さい。カウンターは3種類あります。(1) 外国人 (2) 再入国許可を持った外国人 (3) 日本人"

I'd take it on fairly good authority that what mr.sumo.snr wanted is going to happen
 
I think that it is degrading and humiliating to be treated as a criminal when entering another country as a visitor. I am a US citizen and I am certainly not above criticizing the US for doing the same. Also when I travel alone its one thing, but if I go to Japan with my wife (Japanese citizen) and our kids (dual citizens until 21) I will find it extremely rude to have to be split up from them when entering the country. At least when we return they will be in the same line as myself as she will have legal permanent residence status.

I am not married yet but will be soon (next month) so I can see this as being quite a hassle when we travel back to see her family. Also I agree with the sentiments of others here that it just re-enforces a "foreigners are bad" ideology. Wait until my kids are old enough and then listen for the "mommy, why does daddy have to go through a different line?" questions. And then hear someone (not my wife) say, "because foreigners are bad". I know, that may be taking it to an extreme but so is this measure for "safety".

Sorry for the rant, just needed to vent a bit and wanted to add to the opinions here.
 
New finger-printing procedure at airports in Japan is anti-foreigner


Dear fellow Gaijins here in Japan,
I'm sending you (1) part of an opinion article which
will be published by Kapatiran Gaikokujin Soudan Center in its forthcoming issue of Sampaguita newletter (Nihongo only), and (2) a letter to the editor cum analysis. They are both about the new procedure enforced at Japanese airports and seaports which will affect foreigners, including permanent residents.

(1) Expensive and Defective Technology Will Not Make Japan More Secure
by Jayson Lamchek

Beginning November 20, 2007, under the newest counter-terrorist measures passed by the Japanese Diet in 2006, like bar-coded goods scanned at the cash counter, foreigners will be made to face a computer camera and required to put their two index fingers on a scanning device. They will be quickly mug-shot and fingerprinted upon entering or re-entering Japan in all of its 27 airports and 122 seaports. Foreigners' biometric information (facial photographs and fingerprints) will then form the digital database which will supposedly help identify terrorists and other criminals in Japan. At the moment, no legal restrictions exist that will prevent the sharing of this database throughout the Japanese government and with other countries and even corporations. And the Japanese government intends to keep these information for at least 80 years, i.e., even after one leaves Japan.

A sufferable nuisance it may seem to many but the collection of this biometric information from uninformed foreigners is a massive invasion of their right to privacy ostensively to provide Japanese society greater security. Personally, I find it offensive that Japan thinks it needs to obtain my biometric information before it can feel secure. But perhaps, more importantly to Japanese, the promised security benefit is seriously in doubt as well.

In the Ijuren-sponsored forum appropriately titled ﾂ"Towards further control over foreign nationalsﾂ" held last Saturday, guest speaker Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union revealed his country's shameful experience with the gathering of biometric information of foreigners. At the moment only the United States is enforcing a similar program called US-VISIT (and Japan's program is also the result of American pressure). The program, which has cost the US at least 15 billion dollars, has taken biometric
information from at least 76 million visitors until January 2004. How successful is the program? As of January 2004, only 1,800 people have been caught mostly for minor immigration law violations at the cost of 8.3 million dollars per person caught.

Government and critics alike concede that Japan isachieving its goal set under the Action Plan of Measures Against Trafficking in Persons December 2004 to reduce the number of visa overstayers by half in five years. Ordinary police work, no fancy technology, has done the trick. Why then spend more money building an expensive technology-driven surveillance infrastructure against foreigners?

The program has also mistakenly trapped ordinary people with no criminal records, including pilots and airline employees, foreign professors and students. Even famous singer Cat Stevens was prevented from
returning to the US because of inaccurate identification.

Steinhardt could only cringe at the thought of individuals mistaken as terrorists because of inaccurate identification. This has already happened
to an Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield who was held by the US government for two weeks mostly under maximum security conditions because FBI experts claimed that his fingerprints were found on a bag of detonators
left near the site of the Madrid bombing. It turned out later that those fingerprints matched more accurately those belonging to a suspect arrested by the Spanish police. Mayfield has never ever been in Spain. Mayfield was released and the Justice Department has since apologized to him.

Needless to say, the system is sheer discrimination on the basis of nationality. Why assume that foreigners are more prone than Japanese to commit crimes and terrorism?

Here at Kapatiran, we have constantly listened to stories of domestic violence and abuse committed by Japanese men against Filipina women. Foreign women are more prone to become victimized by domestic violence committed by their Japanese husbands and boyfriends. These are crimes too even under Japanese law, but who's fingerprinting those wife batterers?


(2) Letter and Analysis by Teruo Naka

Dear Editor,

From the middle of November 2007, most foreigners entering Japan will be obliged to provide their fingerprints and photographs to the Japanese
government.

As a Japanese national with a lot of foreign friends and as one who is married to a Brazilian, I strongly object to this new system and hope for the repeal of the amendment to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act which was passed in Parliament.

There are a number of serious issues that should be discussed regarding the amendment.

Two of these issues are:
1) The system puts foreigners' privacy in danger of violation.
2) The system intensifies xenophobia which has worsened over the past several years under the government led by the Liberal Democratic party and the NEW KOMEITO.

I reckon that your readers are going to be made aware of this new system only through the information given by the Japanese government under the current administration.

In my readings of the parliamentary minutes and deliberations about the new system, I noticed that very important points have not been included in the
publicity campaign of the government.

With the help of my friends and family, I translated some of them. I will be very pleased if you could refer to the attached document in your future coverage of the new amendment.

Sincerely yours,
Teruo NAKA


1) ﾂ"Prevention of terrorist attacks" cannot be achieved by this system because the system cannot stop terrorists whose fingerprints are not on the
blacklist.

Since an enormous amount of money to the tune of 7 billion yen or more is the initial appropriation approved for the new system, it is logical to think
that there are other purposes for which this budget allocation is going to be spent. Given that clearly, the system is ineffective in preventing the entry of
potential terrorists whose biometric information are not entered in the blacklist, spending this much money on the new system makes one doubt about the real intentions of the current administration.

2) Biometric information provided by foreigners are going to be stored and used for 70 or 80 years.

It is worthwhile to note that the Japanese government under the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party and the NEW KOMEITO is going to enforce the new law with the intention of storing the data provided by
foreigners entering Japan for 70 or 80 years. This is consistent with the current administration's prejudicial stance against foreigners, viewing those
visiting Japan as potential illegal workers or criminals.

It is clear that the reason why the biometric information from foreigners are going to be stored for 70 to 80 years is the belief of the government under the current leadership that foreigners coming into Japan are potential illegal workers and will be part of a ﾂ"hotbed for crimesﾂ" or ﾂ"a hotbed of the
deterioration in the country's securityﾂ".

The assumption is obviously groundless as the official statistics show. Crimes committed by foreign nationals including those ﾂ"overstaying personsﾂ" have not been increasing dramatically, contrary to the government's propaganda. The majority of foreign residents in Japan including those with illegal status are living here peacefully as members of Japanese society.

However, the current administration has not shown adherence to overcoming elitism, racism and discrimination which have been the defining values of the Imperial era. Instead, it is carrying out policies based on xenophobia.

* In Japan, providing fingerprints to authorities is imposed only on a criminal suspect. Although at one point, foreign nationals were asked to give their fingerprints to government officials, the practice was abolished in 2000 after a strong protest movement.

3) Putting foreigners under surveillance of the Japanese government is the true purpose of the new system. If ﾂ"prevention of terrorist entryﾂ" is its
purpose, then, it is not necessary to store the biometricinformation given by foreign nationals for 70 to 80 years after customs and immigration procedures have been satisfied upon entry.

It should be pointed out that the Japanese government requested that fingerprints information of the Japanese visiting the United States should be
discarded at the time of departure from U.S. soil when the US government introduced the same system called US-VISIT. This double-standard was mentioned by Satoshi TAKAYAMA of the Democratic Party at the Lower
House during the deliberations of the proposed amendment.

4) The results of the collation of fingerprints of foreigners entering Japan have errors. But in these cases there is no ﾂ"guarantee of a due process of lawﾂ" in Japan for those alleged to have terrorist
connections.
 
Naka-san, we need more people like you. Great work!
 
It is also true that the ruling LDP and Komeitto are the parties trying to enact the controversial Human Right law, which even the Communist Party opposes.

Anways, kakuekiteisha, keep posting here.
 
pipokun said:
It is also true that the ruling LDP and Komeitto are the parties trying to enact the controversial Human Right law, which even the Communist Party opposes.
Anways, kakuekiteisha, keep posting here.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot pipokun and Ewok85! I will try to keep you updated about the latest developments on this issue. I heard that there will fora and symposia to be held in several cities in Japan. Let`s help disseminate the information among gaijins in Japan. Arigatou.
 
"I am a US citizen and I am certainly not above criticizing the US for doing the same."

i completely agree with this viewpoint. thanks for posting!

i also (like others who have posted herein) don't think this will help with preventing any terrosrist acts -- those people will pay whoever they need to ensure that whatever they are trying to do gets done.
have noticed the color-coded foreign people (i.e. middle-eastern heritage man wearing a light blue coat and walking a little further around, noticing a young woman of middle-eastern heritage wearing a light blue sweater) being posted outside of stations like minami senju in the late hours of the night watching everybody.
how would foreigners be able to stand anywhere on the street for more then ten minutes in japan and NOT BE NOTICED? hmm
ah well...
 
They can have my picture and fingerprints. My 2 banks have the same info. My husband does the same thing when returning to the USA. I have nothing to hide. We have out picture taken a hundred times a day without our even knowing of it, like when we go to a mall, go to an ATM and so forth. At least when entering Japan, I know who's taking my picture and when they are taking it. At a mall, I have no idea what the store does with it's surveillance, if anything at all.....
 
Goldiegirl said:
I have nothing to hide
Click to expand...

A standard argument... Would you be happy if the government searched your house every day? You've nothing to hide after all.


Well, at least you partly know that the J-Gov will be doing with your prints. They'll be comparing them with every print found at a crime scene in Japan. And they'll be sharing with them with 'other governments.' At least these are the most visible items... I'm sure your prints will be mis-used in any number of ways.

And the fact that the USA denies your husband's rights to dignity doesn't excuse Japan doing the same to you.
 
Fingerprints compelled? That is not such bad idea?

Two weeks ago my daughter and I went to Londodn. We had no problems at Schiphol, the Amsterdam Airport. But when we went back to Holland, we had to take our shoes off at the British Airport. I wore lace-up shoes, and I was taking them off while standing... not easy at my age.
Fingerprints at the air ports? No problem!
 
I don't mind the tight airport security, but more non-EU citizen lanes in the Heathrow.
 
pipokun said:
I don't mind the tight airport security, but more non-EU citizen lanes in the Heathrow.
Click to expand...
When my japanese wife and go to London: I am done with my passport control in one or two minutes and then I have to wait for half an hour for my wife. I guess that they treat the non-EU people with other standarts. I know of several japanese who have been questioned and treated with suspision in Heathrow - as if economic emigrants came from Japan? The ingnorance and rudeness of immigrations officers know no limit!
 
Han Chan said:
The ingnorance and rudeness of immigrations officers know no limit!
Click to expand...
...which is probably true for most every country. You might need to have a somewhat special (strange?) mind set, if you would want to become an immigration officer.
 
For those of you who don't care about the fingerprinting, how many are just tourists and how many actually live in Japan? Tourists are likely not going to stay long, but we residents have a serious beef, I feel.

1. Not all foreigners get equal treatment. So, the policy is automatically biased and discriminatory.

2. No terrorist act in Japan ever was caused by a foreigner, so if the government suspects terrorism from residents, it should be looking at its own citizens much more than foreigners. More discrimination.

3. Fingerprinting is inaccurate. People are already discussing ways to hinder the system when it begins on the 20th.

4. Fingerprints are not like 7-Eleven closed circuit videos. Fingerprints will be shared with other branches of the Japanese government and police, as well as with other governments and other police. What reason do they have to suspect foreigners who live and work peacefully here? None, therefore it's an invasion of privacy and human rights.

5. Interesting exceptions to the policy include teens under 16. So, I guess foreign teens from Iraq or Iran or some other countries are just not that violent, eh? Perhaps the government should read more.

6. Another interesting exception to the policy (from the US embassy's November report) is anyone under SOFA. That means military personnel (soldiers) and their families, plus civilian contractors and other personnel working on base. So, a person who has a stable job in Japan as a businessman or teacher or self-employed, perhaps for a decade or more, is more suspicious than the cook or McDonalds employee on base in Okinawa? Ludicrous loophole.

7. Our famous Justice Ministry official's story. If that is any inkling of the reasoning behind this new policy, it is no wonder that the government here is in such sad shape, and that equal rights in Japan are so ill-enforced.

8. With the fiasco in losing pension records, the government has a bad history of handling personal information. With other examples of employees leaking personal computerized records to the Internet, just how secure are you in thinking your prints and photos are going to be held only by immigration and the Justice Ministry (as if point #4 above wasn't bad enough)?

So, tourists, you have a different opinion because of your transitory nature. Please try to understand the opinions of those of us who actually live and work here.
 
Search my house, sure, I still have nothing to hide. Sorry I live a boring life.

I can understand how those of you who are permanent residents feel though. You are different from us visitors. I think there should be some exceptions. You live there and pay taxes, you have an interest in the security of Japan.

As for the argument that the only terrorist attacks in Japan have only been by other Japanese, so they shouldn't fingerprint foreigners, just doesn't work. At THIS point there haven't been attacks by foreigners, but seeing as Japan has a close relationship with the USA, for how long is Japan safe. The USA seemed safe until 9/11.
 
Goldiegirl said:
The USA seemed safe until 9/11.
Click to expand...

Fingerprinting wouldn't have prevented that atrocity. And if other terrorists want to target Japan, fingerprinting isn't going to stop them either. In fact, implemented this completely circumventable 'anti-terrorist' measure could even be something of a red rag to a bull to them.
 
True fingerprinting is not fool-proof. It will catch some though, and I would rather catch one terrorist than not....but hey that's just my thought. I was also told those that complain the most usually have the most to hide? hmmmmmm?
 

Show me the source.
The US soldiers have the official visa like diplomats, but not civilian contractors.

And if you live in Japan for a decade or more, you are eligible to be naturalised here. And if you are not a famous activist, the government does not force you to renounce your home country passport. Or even if you are famous, nobody forces you to do so.
 
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