The Japanese Government has stated that it will start fingerprinting and photographing foreign visitors from next month upon arrival, under stringent new security measures that have been criticized by civil rights advocates.

That’s right. Despite the Japanese foreign office being incredibly understaffed and poorly managed, the Japanese government see it fit to burden it with yet more work, aimed at making coming to Japan even more confusing and daunting than it already is. The new measures are supposed to come in on November 20th, and will immediately mean all over 16s entering the country will have all their prints taken, similar to the United States’ measures post 9/11.

The reason the Japanese government have decided to bring about these changes now is due to reports that the French Muslim militant Lionel Dumont managed to sneak into the country with a fake passport. I’m going to go ahead and put my neck on the line right now and state that even if Dumont had been photographed, what’s the chance of whichever poor security officer running the test actually realizing it’s him? The plan is for the fingerprinting to be electronic, which basically means foreign visitors have to wait around in an airport whilst prints are checked against a database of criminals.

I think just about everyone in the world can spot the human rights infringements here. Whilst I understand and support any country in actively seeking out criminals, working from a standpoint that “We’re only safe if every foreigner is on record” is not a measure against criminal activity, it’s simply promoting Xenophobia in the nation. For a country who’s tourism industry is actively trying to expand, these new rules make no sense at all.

So what alternatives are there? Japan already employs a strict immigration policy, with visas notoriously difficult to obtain and upkeep. Currently, short term visitors from most developed countries were not required to hold a Visa, but by adding their prints to a huge database, aren’t the government basically stating “But what if they turn into a criminal one day?” Considering it’s one of the most developed nations in the world, the crime rate is so low it seems as if these measures are simply being put in as a precaution, rather than as a solution. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. The country does a fine job when it comes to national security - one report should not result in an accusation of every non-Japanese as a potential troublemaker.

Ultimately, these measures are going to become more of a hindrance than a help to Japan. With Hong Kong and China rapidly becoming the tourist spots of choice, adding further reasons for people not to visit is simply illogical. Regarding people wishing to move to or continue living in the country, who are screwed over on an annual basis by the ridiculous “Gaijin Card” measures anyway, these new rules are simply another problem on the pile of being a foreigner in the country. Knowing her prints will immediately be entered onto a “Criminal Detector”, would you really want your mother visiting you?

For more info regarding immigrating to Japan, I advise you check out the <3 Yen blog.

Source: CNA

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 6th, 2007 at 7:43 am and is filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.