Is Japan Unfriendly to Visitors?
November 13, 2007 Living in Japan
With only one week to go before Japan’s new entry procedures go into effect, foreigners are becoming even more vocal about the coming changes. I had written about this subject a few months ago, but figured it was time to put this question into better context and raise some of my own concerns regarding Japan’s ‘Friendly Factor’.
I’ve come to Japan three times in the last 18 months, with the most recent arrival being a semi-permanent one. With each trip, I’ve had some run-in with immigration and needed some extra attention. This wasn’t because of any legal restrictions against me, but instead my own stupidity. Misreading the airport signs and going through the wrong Customs & Immigration officers in Tokyo (twice). Having an official meet me in Nagoya due to complications in Portland. Not understanding a question and sitting in an office with another Canadian from Edmonton that made the same mistake while the immigration officers decide what to do about our invalid temporary visa (my fault for getting in the wrong line, though). So I’ve certainly had some run-ins with this nation’s oddly worded signs and border police, but nothing that I’d consider unfriendly.
The same is said about almost everyone I’ve spoken to in Japan. Police officers, while not the most intimidating or responsive justice officials I’ve ever encountered, will make the effort to help me out when asked. Rail conductors and station masters, while visibly uncomfortable with my poor language skills, will try to help me when I’m confused or uncertain. At restaurants and cafe’s, servers often try to avoid dealing with me unless I’m with my wife, but they’re not rude or discourteous if they happen to be unlucky enough to “serve the gaijin”. And, oddly enough, convenience store staff seem to have the least amount of trouble with my foreign blood.
This is the very same treatment I’ve seen afforded to non-English speaking tourists in Vancouver, Toronto and Niagara Falls in my home country; the ever multi-cultural Canada. Natives are typically friendly in almost every nation. It’s the language barrier and misunderstood unspoken language that create the image of an irate or obtuse national.
Okay … so the people are nice, but what about the upcoming changes to Japan’s Entry Procedures? I don’t see what the problem is, really.
Whenever visitors want to come to a country, they need to ask that nation’s permission. This is true in any country that has a semi-functional government body. These nations, in turn, request certain pieces of personal information from us before deciding to grant or reject our petition for entry. Many western people don’t even realize this is happening as we’re often lucky enough to come from a country that has a solid working relationship with the international community. So, if we’re already giving up so much personal information (our names, addresses, citizenship, criminal history, etc), why not also give a picture and digital copy of our fingerprints?
Is this an invasion of privacy? Is it part of some ‘guilty until proven innocent’ society? These statements couldn’t be further from the truth.
While Japan’s pension fund database is a joke, the system created to handle the large number of foreign visitors is top notch. This system will reduce the number of people coming on fake passports because they can be stopped right at Customs & Immigration. People that are barred from re-entry for whatever reason on one passport will no longer be able to come back on a different passport (which is possible with many countries just by upgrading a passport, or reporting it stolen and having it replaced). Known terrorists, felons and otherwise unwelcome people can also be blocked and evicted beforehand. All of this can be accomplished by placing a finger on a tiny pad for 2 seconds, so how is it a bad thing?
On top of the ability to screen visitors to this great nation, the police will have a greater resource available to check their collected fingerprints against. Naturally, there is the potential for false positives but, short of submitting DNA at customs, this is one of the most effective ways to catch potential criminals. This is not the unholy human tracking system that some believe. This is not Japan’s attempt to close their borders or corral foreigners, either. As it is, we’re already being tracked any time we enter or leave any nation on this planet. Supplying something as simple as a biometric signature that’s way too cumbersome to be used as a site-by-site locator isn’t going to make that big a deal for 99% of us.
I’m not going to use the tiresome statement that “if we have nothing to hide, we have nothing to fear” because that line is nothing but BS spouted by those in denial of the world around them. Do we have anything to fear? The short answer is ‘yes’, but the chances of this information being used against us is quite small.
Anything stored in a database can be extracted from a database. That information can then be sold to the highest bidder, altered to frame us for a crime we didn’t commit, or any number of life-shattering circumstances. Looking at this nation’s history of well-designed databases and data security breaches we might be quick to panic but, after careful examination of the available information on this system and its implementation, we really have very little to worry about. Unless the system is breached by the team that developed it (or the administrators that maintain it), our biometric information and historical itineraries are quite safe from prying eyes.
All-in-all, I doubt there will be many problems with this sytem after the initial bugs are worked out. At worst, our fingerprints will match a known felon and cause a slight delay at Customs. But this is what the mandatory photo is going to be used for … visual verification. If Japan really wanted to make things difficult for foreigners, we’d have a GPS tracking device attached to our ankles. The two extra details they’re requesting on entry isn’t going to be useful in any situation outside of the legal system.
Comments (21)
Is Japan Unfriendly to Visitors?…
With only one week to go before Japan’s new entry procedures go into effect, foreigners are becoming even more vocal about the coming changes. I had written about this subject a few months ago, but figured it was time to put this question into bette…
A well thought out post Jason. I’ve never felt comfortable with the idea of handing out any more personal information than is absolutely necessary.
But this change isn’t going to stop me flying.
It smacks of overkill to me. Correct me if I’m wrong but Green Card holders in the U.S don’t have to line up in the “potential terrorist” queue, so why do permanent residents in Japan? Green card holders in the U.S don’t have to carry an alien registration card with them all the time, so why do permanent residents in Japan?
I hope you’re right about it only taking a few extra seconds at the airport, but I suspect it will take longer than that since we have to pose for a photo, too. Meanwhile my wife and kid have to wait longer than usual on the other side, hoping I don’t get deported! And if by some chance I was, who’s going to pay the mortage?
Japan is my home, but they can kick me out with one swift airport cock-up.
I don’t know all the details of the American system, but any time I’ve taken a plane (with each time being after 9/11) the US is quite obvious with their racial profiling. People that look even remotely from the Middle-East are required to go through different lines and subject to much harsher security checks.
In Canada, non-citizens are expected to carry around proper identification at all time, and landed immigrants and non-citizen permanent residents must carry a special card in addition to their other ID.
The Japanese system, while not perfect, seems to include elements from both of these systems. Taking fingerprints will take two or three seconds, and the photo another ten to fifteen. Photos will not be required at every entry as our appearance doesn’t change that often.
I agree that it’s a little stressful to go through immigration and wonder if we’ll get some guy who’s in an especially foul mood, but this could be a step in the right direction. There have been rumblings about using this system as a “trust mechanism” in a few years, which will let immigration officers see, at a glance, that we have been in Japan for years and are no threat to national security.
Although the trust mechanism is currently idle speculation based on a statement probably taken out of context at a press conference in August (as soon as I find the link, I’ll post it), a system like this lead by the Japanese government would set a great example for the rest of the international community.
The vast majority of immigrants are hard-working, decent people who would never turn against their adopted countries. Governments know this. On top of this, Japan is facing a slight problem with a population that is going to see some incredible retirement rates in the next ten years. If the feds here really want to keep the pension system running (at least for the sake of appearances), they need to bring more people into the nation. It’s only in their best interest to make things easier for the “good immigrants” while also keeping unwanted visitors out.
Hopefully my ideological musings about the Japanese government are at least half accurate. That said, they’re acting an awful lot like Canadian politicians, which means this is something they’ve never thought about, and wouldn’t care to
I don’t really have a problem with being fingerprinted – in fact I had my print on my first alien registration card before they abolished fingerprinting in the late 1990s – I’m just not looking forward to waiting in line for ages (the foreigner’s line always takes longer than the native’s line even without these extra measures) at the end of a long flight from the UK.
They might try to sell it to us as a “trust mechanism”, but that’s just spin. The Japanese Justice minister admitted it’s there to stop “terrorists” coming into the country (source).
I’d rather they came out and were honest about it. In the Japan Times a celebrity said that he hoped with would reduce “Foreign Crime” Urgh…
Why don’t you check out the petition against fingerprinting in Japan.
I just wish that the authorities came out and were honest about the implementation of the system. Who are they kidding about terrorists.
In the Japan Times recently a celebrity came out and said that he hoped that it would reduce “Foreign Crime”… Urgh…
Why don’t you check out the petition against fingerprinting in Japan.
Because of this NEC is now on my Do Not Buy List!
http://www.jdonuts.com/2007/11/fingerprinting-in-japan.html
Umm … avoiding NEC is almost impossible if you buy anything with a semiconductor. NEC is responsible for 40% of the ICs and SCs that we find in Japanese-made electronics. Heck, if you own a flat-panel monitor or TV, chances are you have something made by NEC.
I can understand why you might not be too happy with the picture and print requirement, and I can even appreciate the irritation many people feel when seperated at the airport just because we weren’t born in this nation, but boycotting a company just because they supplied the government with equipment for a decent price isn’t really going to send a message. Instead, it might be easier to get everyone that disagrees with this law to not use the “Gaijin line”.
If a few thousand non-Japanese start causing a fuss and intentionally go to the native lines, the government might just look at putting us all in a single line regardless of birthplace.
Or they’ll evict the lot of us…. Heck, it’s been done before
Sorry about the comment spam, it wasn’t showing up before so I thought I had to write again because something fouled up. I guess it was just sent to pending approval….
As for NEC, yes I already have a NEC monitor. But when it eventually goes to the digital resting grounds in the sky, it’ll be replaced with a product that has been researched to be as far from NEC made as possible.
I agree with the idea of civil disobedience to get the point across, also petitions, online activism and product boycott. I can’t condone stronger measures, but what avenues that are open to me I will take.
But I choose to take the comment about complete eviction with a grain of salt Jason.
Well, we wouldn’t want people to be evicted from the country we’ve adopted as home. I had mentioned it because it’s something that the government could choose to do regardless of what ‘the people’ want.
Considering the number of Japanese ministers being caught in scandals and other pots of hot water, perhaps you could run for office and try to get the law amended or repealed. Voters might just consider voting for a gaijin if more of the LDP are found to be committing crimes.
Kinda funny how the biggest criminals and terrorists in most nations turn out to be the politicians that feed on the people they’re supposed to lead
[...] one for fingerprinting and one against fingerprinting. Fellow Kakamigahara blogger, Jason, wrote in favor of fingerprinting, whereas the Australian wife of a Japanese man outright refuses to return to Japan, ever again! [...]
I’ve just added you to a report on the Japan Blogging communities reaction to the fingerprinting issue.
http://www.jdonuts.com/2007/11/fingerprinting-in-japan-blogs-eye-view.html
Hope you get some buzz from it.
Thanks for the head’s up. I’ll look forward to some buzz
So far, it seems that there are some issues with the hardware, as well as the people who refuse to give their fingerprints. I’m hearing stories that people who refuse are being forced to submit their prints before being deported … but I haven’t been able to confirm this in the news
If Japanese immigration officers are resorting to such measures, perhaps we should have them train the regional police departments. The cops around here could stand to develop a little backbone.
Why is this offensive? In the US we would give our right arm to have someone care about what is coming in the country. Look at US Customs and Border Protection website and see all the junk coming over. Murderers, thousands of pounds of drugs, you name it.
Why do gaijins get some uppity when they go out of country? No one is making them go anywhere.
The US does have some pretty tight controls in most places, and the Japanese system is modelled on the American immigration proceedures. However, in the US, only people who *look* like they might be a problem are fingerprinted and photographed.
I’ve gone through US immigration a few times since their cameras and fingerprint readers were introduced and have never once been asked to submit my details. That said, I’ve seen lots of East Indian, Middle Eastern and South Asian people face much more scrutiny than I would have thought necessary.
I can understand why so many foreigners are upset by this measure, but I can also understand what the government is trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, the law was poorly introduced, poorly implemented, and poorly discussed with the general population.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with this new policy. But ask me again if I’m ever denied entry to my new home country because of some technical glitch in the system
Japanese Police have already been using the Gaijin Card as a lazy way to catch criminals. When a nigerian man was wanted for a shoplifting crime they looked up the database and arrested the nearest registered foreigner. When they bought him back, turned out he was white. Oops, but they locked him up for 3 weeks and threatened him to sign a confession. He refused and they had to let him walk. Not a word of apology.
Not surprising either. Nationalists like Koizumi and Abe have been publicly blaming foreigners for everything wrong with Japan. Police and public officials take their cue from them. Why spend all that money on internationalizing Japan, only to turn around and humiliate visitors?
@Jason you are falling for the “nothing to hide” furfie.
Japanese Police have already been using the Gaijin Card as a lazy way to catch criminals. When a nigerian man was wanted for a shoplifting crime they looked up the database and arrested the nearest registered foreigner. When they bought him back, turned out he was white. Oops, but they locked him up for 3 weeks and threatened him to sign a confession. He refused and they had to let him walk. Not a word of apology.
Japanese Police are all to ready to believe foreigners are criminals. If a Japanese criminal takes your fingerprints off something you’ve left in a public place and leaves it at a crime scene, they’ll only be too ready to believe in your guilt. There police have a history of forcing even Japanese to sign confessions for crimes they didn’t do. The Japanese courts won’t throw out a confession made under duress, and just rubber stamp the police’s decision.
Not surprising either. Nationalists like Koizumi and Abe have been publicly blaming foreigners for everything wrong with Japan. Police and public officials take their cue from them. Why spend all that money on internationalizing Japan, only to turn around and humiliate visitors?
@Sayonara: Thanks for your input on the matter.
I don’t believe I’m falling for the “nothing to hide” sales pitch the government has been using as it’s something I’ve always believed. If I’ve done nothing wrong, then it’s all good. If I have done something wrong, then I’d better not be sloppy and leave evidence behind.
I agree that police may use this as yet another way of lazily “catching” somebody, but every nation can be accused of this. I’d hear of some mixup (as they like to call it) at least once a month in Canada or the US, so Japan can’t be expected to act any differently. That, and the Japanese police hardly strike me as having the highest IQ when it comes to handling crime scenes.
Regardless of where immigrants or foreign visitors decide to go in life, they will always be subject to some form of persecution or unwarranted ridicule from the native population. This is something that comes with being from elsewhere, and it’s seen in even the most multicultural of nations. At the end of the day, if we’re not happy with how we’re treated, then we’re almost always free to leave.
I, on the other hand, have made my bed in Japan and fully intend to sleep in it.
Taking fingerprints will take two or three seconds,
Oh thats some funny s__t!
I could give a fu__ if they take my prints. (they actually took prints, DNA, Retinal scans back in 2005 without me signing anything or even asking me. Big deal.
But I’m NOT studying Japanese. I am a F___ING English teacher!!
6 years and no problems not speaking and not wanting too. They can b__w me !!!!
I can certainly appreciate your argument on the matter, Chris, as many Western nations do not force immigrants or permanent residents to learn the local language or assimilate the Japanese culture, but surely you can see why the Japanese government is considering having language proficiency as part of the visa renewal process, right?
The Japanese government is full of xenophobes who think the same way as those in power during the 1920’s. We gaijin are ruining Japanese culture and are a strain on the justice system due to the rampant foreign crime rates (you’ll love the post I have lined up talking about this “foreign crime problem”). If you force your long-term foreign citizens to communicate in Japanese, you also ensure the people who have the least amount of interest in blending in with the crowd never stay long enough to cause problems. Lord knows the Japanese blood line has become diluted over the last century
That said, I doubt the language requirements will pass through the house. It’s just one of the many pet projects that the Japanese government considers bringing in, but does so just to gauge public reaction. If the majority of voting age citizens are for such a thing, then a committee will be set up to draft a bill. Luckily, most citizens don’t care about such things, because they avoid us like the plague. Heck, I’ve yet to have an adult Japanese person willingly sit next to me on a crowded train.
[/sarcasm]
That said, even if the law does come into effect, I don’t think I’ll be leaving this country. There are bigger things that piss me off that should be resolved before I give up on this nation