Landing Examination Procedures for Japan Changing
July 10, 2007 Living in Japan, World
This has been in the works for quite a bit of time, but it’s finally coming to pass. When arriving in Japan, foreigners will be required to be fingerprinted and photographed as part of the entry procedures, and this is going to come into full effect in November of 2007. There are exceptions to every rule, of course, and this law is no exception. People who will not require the ink or picture include persons under 16 years of age, people with special status of permanent residence, and people performing actions which would be performed by those with a status of residence, diplomat, or “official government business”.
I guess it wouldn’t be a good idea to fingerprint and photograph Prime Ministers and Presidents as they came to Japan … it just wouldn’t be very diplomatic 
Luckily, the fingerprinting will not require actual ink and paper. Instead there will be digital scanners at the immigration officer’s desk. The whole process takes less than 30 seconds. Some travellers aren’t too keen about this change in policy, saying that Japan is intentionally treating all visitors as potential terrorists and invading our privacy by recording and storing this information. I’m not sure where they get this idea, but I think Japan has every legal right to record this information.
Passports can be forged. Government issued IDs can be forged. Heck, everything that would identify us as a responsible citizen of the planet can be forged, giving not only terrorists but other criminals the ability to pass themselves off as law-abiding citizens as they go from country to country. One of the hardest things to alter would be our fingerprints and external appearance. This change will give the law enforcement agencies a better tool to capture potentially unwanted visitors before they can do harm. Law abiding citizens should have nothing to worry about.
People who refuse to be fingerprinted or photographed will be ordered to immediately leave the country. I’m not sure what policies might be in place for people who wear religious headwear (such as hijabs), but I’m certain that there are regulations in place to handle this while still respecting a person’s right to practice their faith.
More information about this can be found on the Japanese Government’s “Channel 61″ service (click “Landing Examination Procedures for Japan” on the right side) as well as in this updated document outlining the Law for the Partial Amendment of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.
We can see that it’s only a matter of time before this becomes the norm when entering any country, I just hope like heck we don’t find out in a few years that people can have the same fingerprints (with over six billion of us, you’d think this might happen, though).
What do you think? Is Japan going too far to protect their borders?
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