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Japanese Immigration fingerprinting foreign visitors?!
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Mosley



Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Posts: 158

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 4:48 am    Post subject: Japanese Immigration fingerprinting foreign visitors?! Reply with quote

Can't believe a thread on this hasn't already been started...if Koreans were doing it there'd be a shytestorm on the Korean Forums! :lol:


Is it my understanding that all foreigners, whether arriving as tourists or with work visas, will have to submit to fingerprinting or else be refused entry?

Man, they call the Koreans xenophobes!
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TokyoLiz



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 5:51 am    Post subject: News items on the issue Reply with quote

Read up on these news items, and decide for yourself if this policy is about fighting terrorism or a poorly concealed way to control all foreigners regardless of visa status.

Should Japan fingerprint foreigners? http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20060606z2.html

Japan's welcome mat gets prickly
"The Japanese government has a long history of not wanting long-term foreign residents, and they really feel they need more control over foreigners," said Sonoko Kawakami of the Japanese chapter of Amnesty International. "The government just wants to gather as much information as possible on people."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-screening11nov11,1,4675245.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Celebrity uses fingerprint photo-op to call for cut in foreign crime
NARITA -- TV celebrity Kazutomo Miyamoto urged immigration officials during a photo-op to use a new process to fingerprint inbound foreigners to fight foreign crime, not terrorism as the government claims the system will be used for.

"I think it'd be best if we could cut the amount of crime foreigners are committing and make Japan a safer place," Miyamoto said at Narita Airport, where he was serving as the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau Chief For a Day as a promotional event for the fingerprinting process.

ttp://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071114p2a00m0na030000c.html

Forced fingerprinting of those who do not comply with new rule
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20071121-00000017-mai-soci&kz=soci

New Japanese Immigration Controls Worry Foreigners
Japan has tried hard in recent years to shake its image as an overly insular society and offer a warmer welcome to foreign investors and tourists. But the country is about to impose strict immigration controls that many fear could deter visitors and discourage businesses from locating here. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/world/asia/18japan-1.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
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Mosley



Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Posts: 158

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 6:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks, Liz.

Between the crap job market and xenophobic crap like this, I wonder if I'll ever go back to the place I loved for 5 years.
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Brooks



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1369
Location: Sagamihara

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have a Japanese wife and when I come back from my vacation next August, I will be fingerprinted.
I am not happy about this.

Many people in business will be more annoyed than me.
Japan will attract less investment. People will go to Hong Kong, Singapore, or somewhere else.
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Yawarakaijin



Joined: 20 Jan 2006
Posts: 504
Location: Middle of Nagano

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's a crap situation all around. Just another example of how fear leads to crap legislation. I mean, they already deemed it inappropriate to be fingerprinting foreingers on their gaijin cards, what's different now?


TERRORISMismismismism. Rolling Eyes
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maya.the.bee



Joined: 23 Sep 2005
Posts: 118
Location: Stgo

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 8:45 am    Post subject: Re: Japanese Immigration fingerprinting foreign visitors?! Reply with quote

Mosley wrote:
Can't believe a thread on this hasn't already been started...if Koreans were doing it there'd be a shytestorm on the Korean Forums! Laughing


there was:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=56633
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gaijin4life



Joined: 23 Sep 2006
Posts: 150
Location: Westside of the Eastside, Japan

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 12:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Many people in business will be more annoyed than me.
Japan will attract less investment. People will go to Hong Kong, Singapore, or somewhere else.

As irritating etc. as being fingerprinted would be for business people who visit Japan frequently, Im not sure that in itself would deter people from coming to Japan for business. I believe that if there are opportunities to do business and make money, people will still come to Japan. - And be inconvenienced by the fingerprinting process ... Confused
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Mosley



Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Posts: 158

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 12:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks, maya the bee. I had fished around a bit but missed the thread.

An afterthought to my post a few hours ago: the JET Programme was started 20 yrs. ago for the "internationalization"(kokusaika?) of Japan but now we have, I presume, the prospect of 100s of newbie JETs arriving at Narita, on a single day next summer, only to be fingerprinted at the immigration "reception'' for them.

It angers, disappoints and depresses me.
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TokyoLiz



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 1:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here are some terrorists to fingerprint...



Oh, wait, they're all Japanese, so they're exempt.
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G Cthulhu



Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Posts: 1373
Location: Way, way off course.

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 4:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Brooks wrote:
I have a Japanese wife and when I come back from my vacation next August, I will be fingerprinted.
I am not happy about this.


Going by the exact wording of the current regulations, no, you won't be fingerprinted: coming in with a Japanese spouse gets you out of it. For now. (Wouldn't want to upset the Japanese half, would they now? Rolling Eyes )


As for being upset, I'm constantly amazed that people are so up in arms over this when they seem perfectly happy for the US to do the same and worse. That and I have every confidence in the Japanese ability to screw things up with it all. Smile
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southofreality



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 579
Location: Tokyo

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 6:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Something as hypocritical as the belief that it's OK for the U.S. to do it, but not for Japan, is hard to understand. I haven't met anybody who openly feels this way, yet.

I have heard the 'what's good for the goose is good for the gander' opinion, though.

In all the time I've lived here, I haven't once deluded myself into thinking that Japan is a country that is very welcoming to foreigners. But, as time goes on, it seems more and more that those in power here would like to make sure that the rest of the world understands just how unwelcoming it is.

But, having said that, I do have to say that once you get past immigration and the bureaucracy in general, Japan's still a pretty good place to live and work, IMO.
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king kakipi



Joined: 16 Feb 2004
Posts: 353
Location: Australia

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 10:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In regard to the previous 2 posts; I am visiting Japan next month with my J spouse and our 18 month old kid and I have been told I will be fingerprinted and photographed at Narita; previously we have gone through together. This was in writing, from the Japanese staff, when we picked up our tickets from HIS (No.1 Travel) here in OZ.

I am dead against it. Japan has no history of terrorism from 'gaijin'; it has been from the locals. I have no desire to go to the US but they are currently a major terror target, as is the UK and Oz, from Islamist extremists. Japan isn't. It is wrong and unjustifiable. Justify away, you who disagree............................

PS Getting a fair bit of neg. press here in Oz
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may be going



Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 129
Location: australia

PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i have a question that i want to throw out there. with credit cards, bills, rental records, cctv, pay slips, visa info., keitai records etc etc, do you not think that every govt. in the western/liberalised world already has a pretty darn good idea about what we're doing, when we're doing it and where we're doing it?

i may be missing something here, but to me this just seems like an overtly public demonstration by the people in power done to show the public that they're doing something. but if the powers that be want info. on us in any capacity, i'm sure they wouldn't find it too hard to dredge up almost all of our lives in detail.

as much of an inconvenience as this may be at first, i really don't think it's that big a deal. so they've got our fingerprints now to go along with all the other records they have on file if they need to be pulled up for something or other.....

and as for the OP, when you first enter korea for work, you have to get yourself down to immigration within 30 days to get your new work visa and guess what they do there? you got it, fingerprint you. no biggie really

to me this whole thing is more about the message it's sending than the implications it might have. it reflects negatively on japan but i don't think it really changes any of our lives bar a couple minor inconveniences to start with...
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Apsara



Joined: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 2142
Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 12:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

And a potential long wait at Immigration every time we come back into Japan. It's more the principle of the matter anyway, and that the public here thinks it will help curb the "rising foreign crime rate", which statistics show is actually decreasing, and is lower the crime rate of the Japanese themselves.

It bugs me a lot being treated like a criminal, but there's nothing I can do about it, so probably not much use raising my blood pressure too much over it, although I can see myself quietly seething next year when I come back into Japan after a trip I have planned in April.

What I really hope is that my own country (NZ) never introduces such measures. It doesn't surprise me that Japan would (re-)introduce fingerprinting, but it will be a sad day if NZ ever does.
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Mosley



Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Posts: 158

PostPosted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 12:32 am    Post subject: Ya got it wrong, mate.... Reply with quote

may be going: You don't have "30 days to get a work visa". In S. Korea, you must enter w/a work visa in order to legally teach there. You then have 90 days in which to get an alien registration card. And the fingerprinting requirement for that? It was abolished last year.

You know Japan's in for a serious image problem when the KOREANS seem to be more "foreigner friendly" than the Japanese!
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