Hurrah, the separate Alien Registration System is abolished after 60 years. Now let’s consider the GOJ give & take regarding tracking NJ under this policy

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Hi Blog. After many years of bureaucratic policy trial balloons and lots of advance warning, July 9, 2012 has finally come to pass, and the longstanding Alien Registration System, promulgated in 1952 to help the GOJ keep track of the pesky aliens (mostly former citizens of the Japanese Empire who were stripped of their Japanese citizenship) who wouldn’t go back to “their country” (staying on in Japan as Zainichi, generational “foreigners” born in Japan to this day), has been abolished sixty years later. In its place, NJ are now registered on Japan’s juuminhyou Residency Certificatesclosing up a ludicrous system where only citizens could be registered as “residents” (juumin) despite paying Residents’ Tax (yup, juuminzei), and teeth-grindlingly stupid moves such as local governments giving animals and fictional characters their own honorary “juuminhyou” despite untaxable status.  Now NJ can also now be listed with their Japanese (and non-Japanese) families properly as family members and heads of household (no longer excluded even from local population tallies for not being listed in the juumin kihon daicho). Finally, closure to that. Good riddance.

That said, the new system also includes new Gaijin Cards (Zairyuu Kaado), which are higher-tech versions (I say remotely trackable due to the RFID technology inside, by design; see below) and still required under criminal law to be carried 24-7 under penalty of search, seizure, and possible incarceration for a week or three. That hasn’t changed. In fact I would now argue it’s gotten worse — since Japanese citizens (even if computer chip technology has also been introduced into J driver licenses and passports, which not all Japanese get anyway) are not required by law to carry any ID whatsoever at all times. Some historical links regarding the true intention of the ZRK (tracking and control of untrustworthy NJ, not convenience for them as is generally sold) follow.

Japan Times IC Chip Gaijin Card Pt 3: View of Bureaucrats: Control of NJ at all costs

Japan Times May 20, 2009: “IC you: Bugging the Alien” article on new Gaijin Cards

Bus. consortium to track Ginza shoppers, then IC Gaijin Cards?

Kyodo: GOJ proposes GPS tracking of criminals. SITYS.

Mysterious Asahi translation: “IC cards planned to track ‘nikkeijin’”

Japan Times on Japan’s emerging NJ policing laws. Nichibenren: “violation of human rights”

Follow-up: More on fingerprinting, tracking people electronically, and RFID technology

New Japanese driver licenses now have IC Chips, no honseki

Alright, I’ll paste some articles below and let’s see what the media has made of this. Feel free to tell us how the changes have been affecting you as well. Arudou Debito

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Alien system ends; foreigners to be issued resident cards
The Yomiuri Shimbun (Jul. 10, 2012), courtesy of JT
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120709004610.htm

A new management system for foreign residents in Japan started Monday. As part of the changes, the previous alien registration system will be abolished and a new resident card will be issued to foreign residents in Japan.

The new system is designed to reduce the number of foreign residents staying in Japan illegally and to be more convenient for bona fide foreign residents.

In the previous alien registration system that began in 1952, local municipalities issued alien registration certificates to foreign residents without examining their resident status. This enabled foreigners staying in Japan illegally to obtain the certificates.

Under the new system, the Justice Ministry will issue a resident card to foreign residents, excluding certain people such as diplomats, who have been granted a status of residence in Japan with a period of stay for more than three months. The card will hold information that includes the name, nationality, date of birth and address of the cardholder.

For special permanent residents such as Korean residents in Japan, a special permanent resident certificate will be issued instead of a resident card.

The period of stay limit for foreign residents has been extended from three years to five years. Under the new system, people leaving Japan will not be required in principle to obtain a re-entry permit if they hold a passport and a resident card and return to Japan within a year and before their period of stay expires.

Foreigners with a resident card or a special permanent resident certificate are included in the national resident registry and they will be able to obtain a copy of their certificate of residence from their local municipality.

On the other hand, those who stay in Japan illegally will not be included in the registry. This could prevent them from obtaining administrative services including education services and medical assistance because local municipalities will not be able to obtain necessary information, such as their address.
ENDS
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The Japan Times Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Re-entry permits soon consigned to history
Foreigners flock for new residence IDs
By MINORU MATSUTANI Staff writer

A large number of foreign residents flocked to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau on Monday, the first day it is issuing new “zairyu,” or residence, cards to replace alien registration cards.

At 8:30 a.m., more than 100 people had lined up for the applications to obtain a new card, an official at the center in Minato Ward said.

Those who arrived at around 8 a.m. had to wait about two hours. People who didn’t bring a head shot measuring 4 cm by 3 cm also had to line up at the photo booths.

Eight regional bureaus, six district immigration offices and 63 branch offices across the nation are now issuing the residence card. Applicants can go to a bureau or office, fill out the application form and receive the card the same day.

“I feel like a part of society,” Yang Chunying, 52, a Chinese national, said after receiving her residence card at the Tokyo bureau. “I am glad to have the card because things will be more convenient.”

The new immigration control system that began Monday has unified the administrative work on foreign residents under the Immigration Bureau.

While some fear that controls on non-Japanese will be tightened, the government has made it more convenient for law-abiding foreigners by extending visa lengths to five years from the current three, and eliminating the requirement to obtain a re-entry permit before leaving Japan for any period less than a year.

The system is designed to be tougher on illegal residents, however.

Such people have been receiving various public services because municipalities usually don’t care about who is here legally or illegally, but this may not last under the Immigration Bureau’s watch.

Some 130 people, mainly Asians, held a demonstration Monday against the new immigration control system at Hibiya Park in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, saying it is overly harsh on illegal residents.

Rest of the article at
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120710a1.html

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First new residency cards for foreign nationals issued at Haneda
July 09, 2012 (Mainichi Japan)
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120709p2a00m0na013000c.html

Two people on a flight from the United States became the first to get Japan’s new foreign resident cards early on the morning of July 9, the first day of the Ministry of Justice’s new mid- to long-term residency management system for foreign nationals.

Late on July 8, staff from the Immigration Bureau — administered by the justice ministry — stood by at Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) in preparation for the switch to the new system. When the clock struck midnight, they changed the signs above the immigration counters, and those indicating card-issuance counters for mid- to long-term residents.

Two passengers from a flight from Los Angeles, California, were the first to apply for the new resident cards at around 4:30 a.m. on July 9. The first recipient was Carlos Shaw, a 37-year-old Tennessee native who was coming to Japan for the first time. Shaw, who is here to teach English at an elementary and junior high school in Yamagata, said he felt lucky to be the first recipient of the new card.

Because the alien registration certificates that had heretofore been issued are being replaced by the new resident cards, mid- to long-term residents already in Japan must exchange their old cards for new ones when they renew their visas. Foreign nationals residing in Japan illegally are not eligible for resident cards under the new system.
ENDS
Original Japanese

在留管理:新制度スタート 「カード」を交付
毎日新聞 2012年07月09日 10時14分(最終更新 07月09日 11時08分)
http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20120709k0000e010074000c.html

3カ月以内の短期滞在者などを除く外国人正規滞在者(中長期在留者)に「在留カード」を交付する「新しい在留管理制度」が9日、スタートした。同日早朝、羽田空港(東京都大田区)の入国審査場では、米国籍の男性が同制度で初の在留カードを手にした。

羽田空港では、8日深夜から法務省入国管理局の担当者らが新制度への移行に向けて待機。日付が9日に変わると、入国審査ゲート上の看板の表示を新しくする作業を行い、カード交付用窓口の表示を「中長期在留外国人」に変えた。

9日午前4時半過ぎ、米ロサンゼルスからの航空機に搭乗していたうち2人が初めて在留カードの交付手続きを実施。第1号の取得者となった米テネシー州のカルロス・ショーさん(37)は「山形の小中学校で英語を教えるため、初めて日本に来た。今日から在留管理制度が新しくなることは知らなかったので、第1号だと聞いて、とてもラッキーな気分だ」と驚いていた。

新制度の導入により外国人登録証が失効するため、既に国内に滞在している中長期在留者は9日以降、在留カードへの切り替えを行うことになるが、不法滞在者は新制度の適用外で、カードを取得できない。【伊藤一郎】
ENDS

87 comments on “Hurrah, the separate Alien Registration System is abolished after 60 years. Now let’s consider the GOJ give & take regarding tracking NJ under this policy

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  • I’m still not 100% clear on one thing: for permanent residents, when do we get new cards? Is it when current ARC expires, or the first time we re-enter the country at the airport?

    — If you re-enter the country, you get it there (but check at Immigration regarding your Re-Entry Permit; that system still has some bugs, and you don’t want the clock to reset if you haven’t got a current REP as of pre-July 9). If you’re just hanging about, you just wait until your current ARC expires, no matter how many years it may be. Which means the old ARC will take quite a few years to phase out.

    Reply
  • So when I take a trip abroad in September, on arrival back in Japan I will be photographed at the airport and this will become my zairyuu card? I take it they’ll keep the ARC?

    Hopefully they’ll have ironed out the kinks by then 🙂

    Reply
  • > and still required under criminal law to be carried 24-7 under penalty of search, seizure, and possible incarceration for a week or three. That hasn’t changed.

    Debito: Are you sure about that? The link that you gave does not clarify it.
    The law that required this was 外国人登録法, but it is void (廃止) as of July 9th.
    http://www.houko.com/00/01/S27/125.HTM

    There are two replacement laws, but a quick read of them does not seem to suggest this.
    Of course a full, complete read through is still necessary, though.

    — Let’s have them and give them a read. Thanks.

    Reply
  • You’re not going to get a card at the airport if you already have an ARC. If you are a permanent resident, you need to get your card by July 8, 2015:

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120707f1.html#.T_1iLvUrLjJ

    You also don’t need a re-entry permit now, but you will require one if you plan on leaving the country for more than a year.

    Also, Debito, I really wish you would drop the whole RFID complaint. If you’re worried about being remotely tracked, just keep it in a tinfoil wallet and put your fears to rest. Realistically, people living in Japan have so many chips in their wallet now that tracking someone is extremely trivial for authorities. In particular, if you have a SUICA or PASMO they can see where you’ve been traveling, what purchases you’ve made, etc. etc. There was actually a news story a couple months back where a JR employee used the SUICA data to stalk a passenger. So while the complaints are valid from a privacy standpoint, it’s just really distracting when you try to conflate that issue with the more important ARC pros and cons.

    — Hokay. Link to the JR employee incident? Thanks. I also am not one to accept fait accomplis, so sorry for mentioning that NJ are still the only ones required to carry (incidentally trackable) ID.

    Reply
  • I had the bad luck to have to renew my status of residence in the same week that this new system came in, by coincidence. Unfortunately, due to my schedule I had no choice but to go to my nearest regional immigration office last Tuesday, day 2 of the new system. (This was a six-hour round trip, including an hour’s waiting time, and involved taking half a day off work.)

    I arrived at 10am and saw there were separate counters for cards and regular applications such as SORs. At that point, the ticketing queue count stood at 325 for the cards and 87 for other applications (they opened at 9am). There was a large crowd of people applying for the new cards; I saw lots of Brazilian passports. So, hundreds of people had piled in early on day 2. I still have my passport and ARC; I presume that I will have to exchange the latter for the new card when I return to get my new SOR.

    There is an article in the Japan Times – http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120710a1.html – which shows that a lot of people wrongly think that you *have* to get the card this week, when in fact it is only necessary when you extend/change status, make some other change, your old ARC expires/disappears/gets damaged, or within three years. There’s a few odd comments there, such as the woman who thinks the new ‘Residence Card’ makes her “feel like a part of society” (even though Japanese don’t have them). Someone else, recently arrived, may have misread a letter telling her to apply for her first card after 9th July, thinking it meant she had to come on that day. Another person who has been here 15 years was renewing a re-entry permit and took the opportunity to get the new card too – but re-entry permits are no longer required unless you leave for more than a year. And there’s someone who’s annoyed to find out she need not have come.

    The system crashed on day #1, amusingly, and many cards were issued without a special signature which is part of the anti-forgery measures. So many people who leapt out of bed to race for the card will have been given a less secure one. See http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120711a2.html

    Reply
  • Regarding Sendaiben’s question – Those with permanent residency can apply for the new Zairyu Card at any time at their nearest immigration office. However, everyone must have the new card within three years of the implementation of the new card; in other words, by July 9th, 2015. See the Ministry of Justice page for more information. http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_1/en/point_3-4.html#anchor-point4

    As to the point of foreign residents being added to the juuminhyou system, it is indeed good news for the thousands of families with non-Japanese family members who until this week have had to endure being listed separately from their loved ones on resident documents. However, it is important to note that while every family member is now listed together on the juuminhyou and foreign residents are now permitted to be listed as setainushi (head of household) the fact remains that non-Japanese are still being kept separate from other (ie. Japanese) residents. Their residency certificate, while saying “住民票” is, is fact registered as a 外国人住民票, and are registered as 外国人住民 under the new law. So despite all the debate and years of hashing out how best to merge the two systems, in the eyes of Japan’s bureaucrats Japanese nationality is still a requirement for being an “official resident” in one’s local community.

    Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, while this new law was still being drawn up officials were quoted, “the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry had considered setting up a separate new registry system for foreign residents. But it eventually decided it would be more efficient to amend the national registry system to include foreign nationals.” So the new rules were set up for the convenience of the government, not to provide equality and dignity to all residents, regardless of nationality.

    Link to quoted article:
    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20090226a5.html#.T_16rastjLU

    Reply
  • orientexpress says:

    When I return coming Friday (July 13) from Singapore to Narita, is it compulsary to get the new card there, although my present ARC is vaild until May 2016 and my visa until March 2015 and the REP until Dec 2012? I prefer to do it at a later timing and not after a long flight at Narita.

    Are the “orange” immigration counters still existing?

    — I think you’ll have to get your new card then. But tell us how it goes.

    Reply
  • Loverilakkuma says:

    As I said several months ago, GOJ’s description of old registration system being “abolished” is misleading based on the following two reasons:

    1) The basic mechanism of information management and control of NJ’s immigration status remains the same. The J immigration bureaucrats require all NJ to register for residency to issue a new card exclusive to them.

    2) NJ are still subject to mandatory ID checking by authorized public agent (i.e., police officer, immigration officer, coast guard)

    Keeping the tabs on NJ with a string attached is exactly what J-immigration bureaucrats proposed in the current registration system. What does it suppose to mean when you hear “古いシステムが無くなる” in Japanese? Does it mean a newly introduced resident system will stop police and legal authorities from bugging you for unspecified reasons anymore because it will properly acknowledge them your legal status? Changing a card label from ARC (Alien Registration Card) to NRC(New Resident Card) on one hand, but continuing the rigmarole that forces NJ to produce ID to the police at the street—no matter what reasons, as usual, doesn’t call it abolishment, at all. This is not the matter of different frame of reference between Japanese and English. This is common sense.

    Moreover, GOJ also presents that they raise the years of maximum stay for up to 5 years with NRC in contrast to 3 years with current ARC. Again. Misleading information. It doesn’t mean you are allowed to stay in Japan up to 5 years. The number of years is not the reference to your duration of stay. It indicates the length of card’s validity as a proof of an authentic ID—same as state ID or driver’s license. In order to stay legally for full 5 years, you need to make constant updates (i.e., renewal) on your visa status by checking the expiration date of document, and have it reflected on your initial NRC at the nearest immigration office in your ward or prefecture.

    Finally, as Debito makes it very clear, high-tech version of new resident card—that allows authorities to remotely check the status of NJ— will likely lead to more racial profiling. Since the intention of new resident system is to crack down on illegal residents (i.e., overstayers), those who are not required to create NRC, such as naturalized citizens, tourists and visitors who plan to stay less than 90 days, official diplomats, asylum seekers, and those who are granted to stay temporarily, etc., will likely become the target of random ID checking, especially when the stakes of national security are high (i.e., international summit, the FIFA World Cup Succor). Is it worth compromising your rights—being singled out and questioned, or even worse, suspected as illegal for not having the NRC—for the pretext of targeting a very tiny portion (approx. 70,000 targets) of +2 million registered foreigners in Japan? Even Jan Brewer and Republican lawmakers who endorsed Arizona’s new immigration law would raise their eyebrows if American citizens became a frequent target of state police’s random ID checking.

    Anyway, GOJ’s rhetoric of new residency system doesn’t match with their vision of realizing multicultural community—i.e., co-existence with NJ in the 21st century. I’ll put a link to GOJ’s official website for the reference.

    See below:

    http://nettv.gov-online.go.jp/eng/prg/prg2672.html?c=21

    Reply
  • Debito,

    The two new laws are:
    入管法: http://www.houko.com/00/01/H03/071.HTM
    住民基本台帳法: http://www.houko.com/00/01/S42/081.HTM

    — Thanks. Let’s have a read. Let’s also look at the letter of the law concerning enforcement of street stoppages and ID checks:
    警察官職務執行法
    http://www.houko.com/00/01/S23/136.HTM
    The part in question on enforcement:
    (質問)
    第2条 警察官は、異常な挙動その他周囲の事情から合理的に判断して何らかの犯罪を犯し、若しくは犯そうとしていると疑うに足りる相当な理由のある者又は既に行われた犯罪について、若しくは犯罪が行われようとしていることについて知つていると認められる者を停止させて質問することができる。
    2 その場で前項の質問をすることが本人に対して不利であり、又は交通の妨害になると認められる場合においては、質問するため、その者に付近の警察署、派出所若しくは駐在所に同行することを求めることができる。
    3 前2項に規定する者は、刑事訴訟に関する法律の規定によらない限り、身柄を拘束され、又はその意に反して警察署、派出所もしくは駐在所に連行され、若しくは答弁を強要されることはない。
    4 警察官は、刑事訴訟に関する法律により逮捕されている者については、その身体について凶器を所持しているかどうかを調べることができる。
    does not have “kokumin” semantic issues, meaning there are no potential loopholes or legal exclusions for extranationals. That’s good news. Now, how will this be enforced? Somehow I don’t see NPA ID checkpoints stopping simply due to force of habit. The NPA has never really given up any policing power voluntarily, and one quick foreign crime scare in the media later, things are right back on track for racial profiling. I think we’re going to need more knowledgable people than I weighing in on this. I’ll page Colin Jones.

    Reply
  • So, the new laws say that they can only stop and question someone if they are acting suspicious.

    My guess is they will do it anyway、but most NJ don’t know these laws, so they can’t say “Am I acting suspicious?”and walk away.

    Just like in any country, the fuzz will do what they want until someone calls them on it.

    NJ need to be informed of their rights.

    Reply
  • EastKyushu says:

    Like Icarus, I’m pretty sure I’d seen a news item about a JR employee using SUICA data to stalk someone, but I thought it was from last year. A few quick searches didn’t turn anything up on JR and SUICA stalking, but I did find an incident from earlier this year of a Tokyo Metro employee using PASMO data to stalk someone (and posting their data on 2ch):

    http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120417004863.htm

    I’m somewhat in agreement on IC cards and tracking. I recognize that they can be very convenient — imagine Tokyo rush hour without SUICA or PASMO cards — but I feel there are too many security concerns to justify placing more important, private information on IC cards. The problem isn’t limited to just residence cards. I have IC chips in my passport, my driver’s license, and a few of my bank cards, and I’m not pleased with any of these.

    Proponents point out that the chips are designed to be read from a distance of only a few centimeters, but with an antenna that can fit inside a backpack they can be read from a distance of tens of meters. They also point out that data on the chips is encrypted, but encryption can be easily broken — passport encryption was broken almost as soon as passports started including IC chips.

    I guess there’s not much I can do except get a scan-proof wallet and keep giving voice to my frustration and disagreement.

    As far as the new system, it seemed like the application for visa extension I filled out recently was much easier and more simplified compared to the last time I applied for an extension.

    ==========================

    Tokyo Metro staffer leaked Pasmo data
    The Yomiuri Shimbun
    http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120417004863.htm

    A staff member at a Tokyo Metro station who was stalking a female acquaintance posted private information from the woman’s Pasmo IC card on the 2channel online bulletin board in February last year, sources have revealed.

    Tokyo Metro Co. said the man used a terminal through which staff members can find out which stations a Pasmo holder got on and off at by inputting such data as the holder’s name and birthday. He then posted the stations the woman had used on the bulletin board.

    The staff member, in his 30s, was dismissed by the company in March last year after he admitted leaking the information.

    According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the case was discovered because the woman reported to police that she had been stalked by the staff member. She said he also wrote obscene comments on the bulletin board.

    The staff member stopped stalking the woman after receiving a warning from the MPD.

    Tokyo Metro created the terminals to assist people who had lost their cards. Station staff were allowed to use them from January last year, but following the data leak, the company changed the system in August so they could only be used at station offices where several people work together.

    (Apr. 18, 2012)
    ENDS

    Reply
  • Sorry about the delay. I see EastKyushu already beat me to it, but I’ll post the Japanese article because it’s much more detailed. It wasn’t JR or SUICA (Tokyo Metro and PASMO), but the information is the same:

    http://digital.asahi.com/articles/NGY201204160035.html

    Anyway, between these easily infiltrated card systems, bank cards, driver’s licenses, etc. there is just a ton of information that can be acquired by authorities if they need it.

    =========================
    東京メトロ駅員、パスモでストーカー 乗車履歴を投稿
    朝日新聞 2012年4月17日
     東京メトロの30代の男性駅員が昨年、駅の業務用端末を使って、ストーカーの標的にしていた30代の女性の乗車履歴を引き出し、インターネット上に公開していたことがわかった。女性から被害の申告を受けた東京メトロは昨年3月、駅員を懲戒解雇した。
     女性によると、駅員は2009年ごろから、帰宅時に女性の勤務先で待ち伏せるようになった。食事などにしつこく誘われ、夜道で尾行されたこともあった。
     女性は、氏名や生年月日を登録する記名式のIC乗車券「PASMO(パスモ)」を使っていた。昨年2月、ネットの匿名掲示板「2ちゃんねる」で自分の乗車履歴に関する投稿を発見。自宅の最寄り駅など約1カ月間に利用した首都圏の9駅と乗降した日付、利用したバス会社名などが書き込まれていた。
     うち1駅はラブホテル街に近いとして、男性と性的関係を持ったのではという事実無根の内容も書かれた。女性の名前はなかったが、事実上個人を特定できる内容だった。駅員は女性を一方的に知っていたという。
     警視庁にストーカー被害として相談し、東京メトロに申告。駅員は会社の調査に、駅改札の端末で女性の乗車履歴を3日間で計10回調べ、自宅でネットに書き込んだと認めた。
     女性は被害の拡大を恐れて転居。昨年12月、東京メトロと、パスモを運用する会社「パスモ」に慰謝料や転居費、2ちゃんねるの投稿の削除を申し立てるのに必要な法的費用などを求める損害賠償訴訟を東京地裁に起こした。女性は「駅員が簡単に乗客のプライバシーを知ることができるとは知らなかった。本当に怖い」と話す。
     警視庁が駅員を呼んで注意した後は、女性の前に現れていないという。
     東京メトロは昨年1月下旬、氏名と生年月日を入力すれば、記名式パスモを使うすべての人の乗車履歴を見られる機能を駅端末に導入し、駅員は直後に悪用していた。今回の問題発覚後、閲覧可能な端末を駅事務室内のみに制限した。
     東京メトロ広報部は「1人で複数のパスモを使う人など、紛失したカードの特定が難しい場合の対処に必要な機能。事務室内は他の駅員の目があり、悪用は難しい」と説明する。
     東京メトロでは07年8月にも、浅草駅に勤務する男性社員が駅事務所の端末を使い、知人女性の名前と生年月日、電話番号を画面に表示して撮影した画像を自分のブログに載せたとして、懲戒解雇されている。
    ■14社「基本情報、駅で検索可」
     IC乗車券は、カードに現金を入れておけば自動精算できるうえ、記名式なら紛失しても再発行し、残額を引き継げる。2001年のJR東日本を皮切りに広がり、東京メトロは07年に導入。13年春にはパスモを含む全国10のカードの相互利用が始まる。
     朝日新聞が、東京メトロをはじめ北海道、関東、東海、関西、福岡の計21社に社員が乗車履歴を自由に閲覧できるか聞いたところ、東京メトロを除くJR東日本、東急、小田急など19社は「IC乗車券が手元になければ見られない」と回答。うち関東の1社は「著名人の名前などをいたずらに検索できないようにしてある」と話した。
     残る南海電鉄は「本社の端末で表示できる」としたが、16桁の会員番号と5桁プラス12桁のカード番号が必要で、自由な閲覧は事実上不可能だとする。
     だが、氏名、生年月日、電話番号、定期券利用区間といった基本的な情報については、14社が「IC乗車券がなくても氏名などの入力で駅端末から検索できる」と答えた。このうち7社は相互乗り入れなどをする他社利用者の基本情報も閲覧できるとした。
     名古屋市営地下鉄や名鉄などが加盟するmanaca(マナカ)の場合、氏名と生年月日、性別を入力すれば、その他の基本情報が駅端末から閲覧できる。名鉄社員が地下鉄利用者の情報を見るなど、相互検索も可能だという。
     国土交通省鉄道局は、各社の個人情報の取り扱いを「把握していない」という。
     個人情報保護にくわしい岡村久道弁護士は「便利さと引き換えに個人情報を渡す傾向が強まっているが、一つ間違えば犯罪に結びつく。乗車履歴の閲覧が本当に必要なのか、東京メトロは再検討の余地がある。利用者も必要がなければ記名式のIC乗車券の使用を避けるなど、みだりに個人情報を出さないという自覚が必要だ」と話す。(神田大介)
    ENDS

    Reply
  • With the legal issues that accompany this ‘new’ system and the technical glitches that were already encountered, it is somewhat concerning how this may cause possible problems in the future.

    Hypothetically, let’s say in 2015, bi-racial Japanese children who have more of their NJ parents’ features are ‘randomly’ stopped by the police and asked to produce their Zairyuu Kaado after the police did not get a valid remote reading through RFID (Whether due to a glitch, kid not yet turned 16, Citizen not required to carry a card, etc.)
    Does the police have probable cause to single out, stop, and question the child? It might be even more disturbing to hear later on how they may be hauled and detained at the police station. Far worse, if the child’s classmates or friends witness this traumatic experience and rumors spreads out in school how their gaijin classmate or (former) friend is a troublemaker arrested by the police. Upon return the child may most likely experience exclusion, ostracism, and bullying.

    Considering the outcome of the Akiko Uemura Ijime case discussed here in debito.org and the recent piece on JT about ‘forced suicides’ by bullies, I sincerely hope that institutions in Japan are prepared to address these types of issues that may arise in the future.

    Reply
  • Anonymous says:

    @Pondscum

    Please allow me to append a slight correction to your statement “So, the new laws say…”

    The Police Duties Law has ALWAYS said that there must be reasonable grounds to suspect a crime for them to stop you at all.
    The only thing “new” here, is that most of us didn’t realize that the Police Duties Law was a limiting qualifier in the ARC Law.

    All this time, most of us were mistakenly assuming (and reporting) the ARC had to be shown anytime a Police officer demanded it.
    It turns out the ARC had to be shown ONLY in the case of The 3 Police Duties which require reasonable grounds to suspect a CRIME.

    Let this be a lesson to all individuals 個人 in Japan: we have and have always had the right to decline suspicion-less I.D. requests.
    Police Duties Law requires reasonable suspicion of a crime to stop you at all, and Police Law 162 says this applies to everyone. 🙂

    Reply
  • Baudrillard says:

    At above, quick response. “Stalking” including that done by the J-state, is a huge problem in Japan, but not quite in the way you might think. Basically interfering in other people’s lives is part of the Confucian tradition; thus an older man will still knock a cigarette out of a younger woman’s hand in Korea; just because he disapproves. One of Mishima’s classics is “Silk and Insight” based on a real event that occurred in the 50s about a boss who “feels compelled to meddle in the lives of his employees” until they strike; this was the paternalistic, almost feudal (in the words of reviewers) “Japanese way” challenged by new post war, western style laws.

    Its also interesting how one of the reviewers likened the main character to Mishima himself, who was admired by Ishihara and is strikingly similar in “trying to impose the ways of the past on the modern world” but I digress.

    In Japan they have replaced this (or tried to) with laws that go against this “interfering grain” and Tokyo is now more rationalized, ie. controlled, non spontaneous “systems” but the need to “control and interfere with strangers” keeps creeping back in. NJs are of course the ultimate strangers and Oyajis must educate them on how to behave in Japan, haha.

    So, hey, that Shibuya Oyaji street patrol were stalking me!

    Thus we have a rationalized control system, ARCs, Suica, Passmo etc originally designed for one use that get subverted into the uber intrusive Neo Confucian..

    Just google “Japan stalker” and see how this term is 1. twisted in meaning to include practically any kind of unwanted contact by one party, a bizarre example here
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88iWWkG7YUQ

    and
    2. how the lack of spontaneity and outlets to communicate naturally now forces people to do it.

    I could say the police stalk me by asking to see my ID. Ditto Jehovah’s Witnesses, newspaper salesmen, JR staff, bar staff pushing another drink on me, etc.

    A completely confused conflict society lacking in social communication skills versus intrusion versus state control.

    Reply
  • I saw this article that makes me definitely think there are more cons to the new system than pros. Here are some excerpts:

    “The changes that take effect Monday, based on a revision to the immigration control law, also create new procedural burdens on all non-Japanese staying in the country more than three months, such as an obligation to report to the immigration office within 14 days after losing a job or getting divorced. Critics say this reflects the government’s intention to strengthen control over foreign residents.”

    “The amendment to the immigration control law will enable authorities to impose criminal penalties or cancel the visa status of foreigners who fail to provide notification of a change of address within 90 days.”

    “Unlike the current system in which foreigners notify their municipal or ward office, they will have to notify the Justice Ministry or one of its approximately 75 local offices.”

    “Also under the new system, foreign spouses of Japanese nationals or non-Japanese permanent residents could lose their residency status if they fail to “conduct activities normally carried out by spouses” for six months. This measure was introduced to curb bogus marriages.”

    “The changes could also make it difficult for illegal foreigners to earn a living, as employers will be subjected to punishment if they fail to report to immigration authorities about hiring foreigners, such as when they started or terminated their employment.”

    “There is hardly any substantial benefit for foreigners, and the revisions only increase burdens and supervision,” said Yuki Maruyama, a lawyer and member of the Tokyo Bar Association’s committee on protection of foreigners’ human rights.

    “As the number of foreigners to Japan dwindles, if the government moves to further tighten supervision (of foreign residents), I’m afraid Japan will not be an attractive destination for foreigners,” Maruyama said.

    “There are also fears that some local governments will stop offering education and health care services to illegal foreign residents, as people overstaying their visa or seeking asylum will not be included in the new residence system, support groups said.

    A survey conducted by the Tokyo Bar Association last October found that many of the 57 municipal and ward offices that responded think it will be difficult to provide services to undocumented foreign residents because it will be impossible to pinpoint their place of residence under the new registration system.”

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120706f1.html

    If this is all true than I don’t think this is a development to be welcomed at all.

    Reply
  • Baudrillard says:

    P.S. “In 2000, Japan enacted a national law to combat this behaviour, under the effect of Shiori Ino murder. Acts of stalking can be viewed as “interfering [with] the tranquility of others’ lives”, and are prohibited under petty offence laws.”

    Its official! Do anything to disturb the “Wa” and you are a stalker.

    Policeman:”Can I see your ARC please?”
    You: “stalker!”

    You: “Hello”
    Girl in Bar/club: :Stalker!”

    NJ: (says nothing)
    Any J person who sees you can say “Ooh, there goes the neighborhood. I feel 不安!ストーカー!Call the snitch site!”

    ストーカー. Yet another borrowed label or sign, that loses any real meaning in postmodern Japan and just confuses the hell out of everyone and makes us all paranoid, afraid, and ultimately, alone.

    Reply
  • Mumei wrote:
    入管法: http://www.houko.com/00/01/H03/071.HTM

    That link is not correct.
    This is the link for the law that governs special permanent residents, 日本国との平和条約に基づき日本の国籍を離脱した者等の出入国管理に関する特例法 (law concerning those who lost Japanese citizenship due to the peace treaties between Japan and other countries). I will not focus on SPRs.

    出入国管理及び難民認定法 is the applicable law.

    Everyone should note: http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_1/q-and-a_page2.html

    * Carrying the card is mandatory. Penalty for not carrying: 200,000 yen. Penalty for refusing to show: 200,000 yen and/or 1 year in prison.
    * You must carry the card even if also carry a passport with valid status of residence.

    I will post again with links from the appropriate laws (sure, it’s possible that immigration is making it up as they go along, but I doubt it), but it is important for people not to delude themselves that the ‘show it or else’ clause of 外登法 is gone.

    You have the right to decline to show ID under 警職法. They have the right to ask you, and you must show, under 入管法. Therefore, you should get the police officer to admit first that your answering questions is voluntary, then decline to provide further answers.

    Do not admit to being foreign, or you will get asked for your card in the officer’s role under 入管法. Do not do things that can give rise to a charge of obstructing the officer in the course of his duties, 公務員執行妨害, such as running away or refusing to speak. Even if you are Japanese, you can still be arrested for this. Have the officer acknowledge that the questioning is voluntary and that there are no grounds for suspicion (ideally, record your conversation), then leave. If they don’t let you go, you either wait it out, or you show. But even if you show, they can still keep you waiting around on the street for a while.

    Good luck out there.

    Reply
  • I’m applying for PR in the next couple of months, are there any snafus I should be wary of in doing so, now that the new system is in place? (No international travel planned until next February).

    Reply
  • About the RFID-Chip: you can put your card in the microwave, set the timer to two seconds and the chip is fried. We had similar problems with the new German passports which included an RFID-Chip. I’m not sure if thats going to invalidate your card however. The German passports are still valid, even with a fried chip.

    Reply
  • Anonymous #14:

    I would offer a word of caution regarding your statement:

    “Let this be a lesson to all individuals 個人 in Japan: we have and have always had the right to decline suspicion-less I.D. requests.”

    That may be true so for as the printed text of the law.

    The law in Japan though is mediated by a complex system of police, judges etc.

    If judges permit suspicion-less ID requests to be enforced, or if denial of such a request results in punishment for some other reason, then one does not effectively have such a right to decline these requests.

    Given that the law as it is practiced in Japan is at times quite different than the law of textbooks and printed legal codices, it may be useful to distinguish what exactly is meant.

    Often the functional rights of NJ are significantly different than the theoretical rights of NJ.

    And one should know that testing such frontiers may expose one to significant levels of abuse.

    Reply
  • If your chip is fried, you have to get a new card:
    http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_1/q-and-a_page2.html

    Q25:例えば,在留カードが折れ曲がってしまったりしてICチップが壊れてしまった時は,どうしたらよいですか。
    A.
    ICカードの耐久性については日常生活の使用に十分考慮しているところです。物理的な力が過度に加わってICチップそのものが壊れてしまったりした場合には,ICチップに記録されている情報が読み取れなくなりますので,例えば,金融機関等の窓口で本人確認資料として提示した際に,在留カード等の真正性に疑義を持たれることも考えられます。

    こうした場合には,地方入国管理局で在留カードの再交付申請をし,新たな在留カードの交付を受けることができます。また,このような毀損した在留カードをお持ちで,なおかつご自分で再交付申請をされない中長期在留者に対し,法務大臣は,再交付申請を命ずることができることとされています。

    The chip only contains the same information that is on the card itself.

    Q29:在留カードを落としてなくしてしまったのですが,ICチップから自分に関する様々な情報が見られてしまうのではないか心配です。
    A.
    在留カードのICチップには,在留カードの券面に記載されている事項以外の情報は記録されていません。

    Must carry card. If you don’t, 200,000 yen fine. If you refuse to show, 1 year prison and/or 200,000 yen fine.

    Q40:在留カードは常に携帯していなければいけませんか。また,携帯していない場合にどのような問題(罰則)がありますか。
    A.
    在留カードは常時携帯することが必要で,入国審査官,入国警備官,警察官等から提示を求められた場合には,提示する必要があります。

    在留カードを携帯していなかった場合は20万円以下の罰金,提示に応じなかった場合は1年以下の懲役又は20万円以下の罰金に処せられることがあります。

    here’s a list of al the info on the card.

    Q46:在留カードにはどのような情報が記載されますか。
    A.
    写真が表示されるほか,以下のような情報が記載されることとなります。
    1.氏名,生年月日,性別及び国籍の属する国又は入管法第2条第5号ロに規定する地域
    2.住居地(本邦における主たる住居の所在地)
    3.在留資格,在留期間及び在留期間の満了の日
    4.許可の種類及び年月日
    5.在留カードの番号,交付年月日及び有効期間の満了の日
    6.就労制限の有無
    7.資格外活動許可を受けているときはその旨

    Your Japanese name won’t be on the card, but it will be on your 住民票

    Q48:外国人登録証明書と同じように在留カードにも「通称名」が記載されますか。
    A.
    通称名については,在留カードには法律上も運用上も記載されません。
    新しい在留管理制度・特別永住者制度の下で法務大臣が継続的に把握する情報は,公正な在留管理制度に必要なものに限られますが,通称名は在留管理に必要な情報ではないことや,基本的に,住民行政サービスに必要な情報は,新しい在留管理制度の導入と同時期に「住民基本台帳法の一部を改正する法律」により整備されることとなる外国人に係る住民基本台帳制度において保有されることとなること等を考慮し,法務省において通称名の管理(在留カード等への記載を含む。)をしないこととしています。

    なお,当省は住民票又は住民基本台帳カードを所管するものではありませんが,通称名については,新制度における住民票で扱われることになるものと承知しています。

    Finger prints are NOT on the chip or card

    Q52:在留カードのICチップには指紋情報も記録されますか。
    A.
    ICチップに指紋情報は記録されません。

    With this new card, they are considering how to decrease the waiting time at airports.

    Q66:空港ではいつも待たされています。今後,上陸審査に加え在留カードの発行手続も空港での入国時に行われるそうですが,待ち時間が大幅に伸びるのが心配です。増員や体制を含めどういった対応をとっているのですか。
    A.
    在留カードを交付する空港の上陸審査場では,観光や商用などで入国する一般の外国人用審査ブースと在留カードの交付対象となる中長期在留者の方用の審査ブースを分けて上陸審査を行うことを検討しています。

    また,在留カードの発行等が待ち時間の伸びに可能な限りつながらないよう,体制づくりをしていく予定です。

    — Thanks. I note that the English version linked from this page at
    http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_1/en/index.html
    does not have this necessarily detailed FAQ. Wonder why not.

    Reply
  • @#18

    You wrote “出入国管理及び難民認定法 is the applicable law”

    Well, here it is the The Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act (in Japanese & English)
    http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail/?id=1934&vm=04&re=02&new=1

    And it plainly has the same limiting qualifier which the ARC Law had:

    “警察官職務の執行に当たりとき”
    “only when in the execution of Police Duties”

    The 20万円 fine in that “FAQ” is only applicable: when you refuse a police officer WITH reasonable grounds to suspect a crime.
    If an officer HAS reasonable grounds to suspect a crime, then he is executing Police Duties: ONLY then you must show your card.

    Reply
  • Onsen boy says:

    Maybe a good idea for the police to get cash is to go to onsens and sentos to catch foreigners with the pants down… Carry the card at all times, right? 😛

    — I heard this has been done to the Zainichis many years ago (as in about fifty or so) just to be mean. But hopefully it’s just an urban myth.

    Reply
  • Jim Di Griz says:

    Many valid comments about being able to refuse to show ID to the police unless they have reason to suspect you, but you are all forgetting one little thing; THIS IS JAPAN!

    You are NJ. You refuse to show ID when asked. For J-police, THAT is suspicious. They will be thinking ‘This gaijin won’t show me ID, he MUST be some kind of criminal!’.

    Please stop thinking that your ‘human rights’ mean anything here. In Japan they can kill you for overstaying a visa, and the courts will look the other way!

    Reply
  • orientexpress says:

    As a follow-up to my above posting #7 I want to share my experience at Narita Airport today: I arrived after a biz trip to Singapore at Terminal 1 around 17:30, the orange lane is still there – even 6 orange immigration counters for Re entry permit holders were opened – no waiting time. “Normal” processing – if we accept fingerprinting etc. as normal. Only a A4 leaflet was handed out in English explaining the procedure with respect to the new card. Seems, so far nothing to worry. As I understand the leaflet, holders of the old ARC need to apply for the new card either before the ARC expires or the visa, whatever comes earlier.

    — Thanks for telling us. So it’s not an automatic exchange at the border. Valid ARC holders have to report to Immigration inside Japan before expiry. Do you have the option to make the switch to the ZRK at the border if you want to save yourself a trip later?

    Reply
  • i no this may be off topic sorry but i would like to know if we still have to continue to get reentry permits if we still haven’t got the new card yet? OR regardless if we have the new card or not yet we no longer need reentry permits? I cant get a straight answer anywhere?

    Reply
  • Following on from my comment #5, here is my experience of renewing my SOR and receiving the new card in the first week of the new system. (I didn’t rush to get new stuff; for various reasons I had no choice but to apply on Tuesday, day #2 of the new system.)

    The immigration office came back in record time; 24-hour turnaround, amazingly (last time it was three weeks). So I was back on day #5, right before a holiday weekend.

    Fortunately I only had about a 30-minute wait after handing over the postcard they send you as notification that your SOR is ready. There were a lot of people in the office, again trying to get the new card, but they were separated into other queues.

    Observations:

    1) When they hand you your passport back, you get the new card at the same time, i.e. you don’t have to queue again to get it. They use the photograph from your application, not the one in your passport.

    2) They actually give you your old ARC back, with a hole punched through it to indicate cancellation. I made sure to ask the officer about this, and he said you don’t have to hand the card in to your city hall or anything like that; it’s just yours to keep. So if you want the ARC as a ‘souvenir’ of your time in Japan (and some people, perhaps naive as to what it represented, do), you can get the new card and save the old one.

    3) They don’t put anything in your passport. They simply mark your old SOR stamp as cancelled. This means that unless you have a re-entry permit, there is no longer anything in your passport to indicate that you are a resident of Japan! Apparently, you have to show your residence card to airline staff in other countries to prove ‘visa’ status; expect confusion all round. But newcomers *do* get a stamp in their passports, so the only people with no evidence will be long-termers.

    4) If you do have an existing re-entry permit, it is not cancelled, even though it will have a number on it which is the same as the one on the cancelled SOR stamp. It remains valid until its expiry date, but will only be used if you leave Japan for more than a year. The officer confirmed that I don’t need mine for absences of less than 12 months.

    5) I applied for a five-year extension under the new system, given that this was my second renewal and I had a decent SOR status and an unblemished record. But I received three years instead, for no obvious reason. No appeals allowed. So this much-talked-about ‘advantage’ of the new system, that you get five years, in practice is not an advantage for everyone. I wonder how many people will actually get it?

    Some more points, mostly based on what I watched at http://vimeo.com/44493922

    6) There is no passport data on the card and you are not required to inform them of passport changes. [So until you need to renew, I presume this means you are no longer obligated to maintain a valid foreign passport, and so could let it expire.]

    7) Existing residents are not issued with the new cards at airports. You can only get them from an immigration office. Newcomers get the same card on arrival (and a passport stamp) but without an address on the front. They have to go to the city hall to have their address officially added to the back of the card, and also register a residency record (juuminhyou).

    8) Although there are fewer reasons to make changes to the card or get a re-entry permit, the new system is more bureaucratic in other ways. As well as the point that there is more paperwork for newcomers (because instead of just applying for an ARC, they have to get the card changed and also get a residency record), there is more to do if you move house within Japan or leave the country permanently. Whereas before, foreigners simply changed the address on the ARC, they must now de-register with their old city hall and re-register with the new one if they move, just as Japanese people do. Furthermore, handing in the residence card on final departure only cancels the immigration record; it does not stop anything else. Previously, cancellation of an ARC would automatically lead to the city hall being notified, so tax records could be closed. Now, the juuminhyou must be separately cancelled. This is obviously not going to happen in many cases, so foreigners are going to leave, cancelling their residence cards, while wrongly assuming that this kills everything, when in fact the council may maintain a tax bill and permanent address. [Could be a problem if you want to prove that you’re no longer a resident of Japan.] Councils have already said that approximately 15% of foreign residents hadn’t notified them of changes in addresses at all, and that was under the old system. This was discovered when the provisional juuminhyou letters were sent out a few months back – see http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120703a8.html

    8) There is only one system. The old ARC is treated as the residence card from now on. Either replaces the stamp in your passport. [I suppose that means that your SOR passport stamp is now invalid even if you haven’t renewed or got the new card yet – legally, your old ARC or new residence card is the only way to prove your residency status.] So you can show your old ARC at the airport in order to leave and get back in without a re-entry permit. There is no reason to get the new card until something happens, e.g. renewing ySOR or losing the card.

    — Thank you very much indeed for writing this up.

    Reply
  • In response to post 27:
    I found the following page in Japanese on the immigration website which confirms you can benefit from the new re-entry system even before you have exchanged your card as long as you have a valid ARC that can serve as your “de-facto resident’s card” (and a passport of course)
    http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_1/q-and-a_page3.html#q172-a

    Within that page:
    Q171:
    新しい在留管理制度導入後も,一定の期間,外国人登録証明書が在留カードとみなされるとのことですが,旅券と外国人登録証明書を所持していれば,みなし再入国許可で出入国することは可能ですか。
    A.
    在留カードとみなされる外国人登録証明書を所持していれば(Q18参照),みなし再入国許可の適用を受けることができます。

    I saved this link a while back, and can now no longer find the equivalent English page, but it is a pretty unambiguous confirmation.
    Cheers

    Reply
  • orientexpress says:

    Jim,

    the leaflet I got says

    1) “Foreign nationals in possession of a valod passport and a residence card who will be reenterig Japan……,will, in principle, not be required to apply for a re-entry permit at the Regional Immigration Bureau anymore

    and

    2)An Alien Registration Certificate. already held by a mid-to-long-term resident, will be deemed to be equivalent to a “Residence Card”, for a specific period of time. (It follows a table explaining this specific period of time, which ultimately ends July 8, 2015, or earlier, if your period of stay or ARC expires)

    So, this means for me that we holder of ARCs do not need to renew our REPs. However, I want to have it confirmed, would be a nightmare to et stuck upon reentry.

    Reply
  • @Paul

    You wrote:
    “I’m applying for PR in the next couple of months, are there any snafus I should be wary of in doing so, now that the new system is in place? (No international travel planned until next February).”

    Yes, I can think of at least one SNAFU (I am quoting the regulations as translated in 外国人をサポートするための生活マニュアル):
    “- As a rule, the applicant should have stayed in Japan with a legal status of residence for more than ten years.
    – In addition, there are some other conditions that have to be met, involving good behavior and the applicant being able to support him/herself, plus that the longest period of stay defined for each type of status of residence has been granted.”

    Well, now, the longest period of stay for most Statuses of Residence is five years. Not three. So unless you have somehow managed to snag a five-year extension since Monday, you only have a three-year period of stay. Therefore, according to the above regulation, you are ineligible, because PR requires the longest one, according to the above regulations.

    I sincerely hope you get PR. For you, and for all of us. But the regulations currently in place aren’t on your side.

    Maybe the MOJ will delete the “longest period of stay” clause eventually. I really hope so, but wouldn’t bet on it.

    When I first realized this Catch-22 situation, I went to my local immigration office (the Yokkaichi branch) and asked about this SNAFU. The top guy at that immigration office said that starting on July 9, a five-year period of stay will be required as a prerequisite to apply for PR. Seriously. He said that. Three-year periods of stay will no longer do. He said it in no uncertain terms, and reiterated it several times.

    However, Paul, I really hope you succeed anyway with your application. And please, please, please let us know the results.

    People should hold off on celebrating these July 9, 2012 changes. They are NOT a major improvement for NJ in Japan. And at worst, they are a major Trojan horse that will keep virtually anyone from applying for PR. I wish people would pay more attention to this.

    Reply
  • Alexander says:

    Debito, what I have been told is that you cannot get the ZRK at the border unless you are new to the country. People voluntarily making the switch have to do so at their local immigration office.

    — Gotcha. Thanks for making that clear.

    Reply
  • Jim:

    “i no this may be off topic sorry but i would like to know if we still have to continue to get reentry permits if we still haven’t got the new card yet? OR regardless if we have the new card or not yet we no longer need reentry permits? I cant get a straight answer anywhere?”

    I was advised by my legal:

    – It is a little unclear if the reentry permit is needed before obtaining the new card for those caught between systems.
    – so yes I got a multiple reentry at visa renewal a few weeks ago.
    – You cannot get a new card at the airport unless it is your -first- entry after getting your (first?) visa.

    Reply
  • Jim Di Griz #25:

    I agree with your essential point.

    Rather than an exchange of quotes regarding what the printed text of the law is, it is important to focus on the law as it is practiced.

    If one is beaten by J police, who themselves never need fear punishment, than the printed text of the law is not relevant.

    It reminds me of a trip to Pyongyang, where the printed law and the reality of the law are diametrically different.

    The article states:

    “the government has made it more convenient for law-abiding foreigners by extending visa lengths to five years from the current three, and eliminating the requirement to obtain a re-entry permit before leaving Japan for any period less than a year.”

    Is it indeed more convenient for us?

    Or will the practice be that those who are defined as “law abiding” are those who obey any whim or caprice of the NPA and immigration?

    Reply
  • Anonymous says:

    @All

    Most of us here are interested in what the Law states, so that we can maintain our rights according to the Law.
    There are some who have decided give up, to forfeit their rights, to simply advise people to obey illegal police demands.
    “It doesn’t matter if the law states that officers need reasonable suspicion of a crime to stop you in the first place, just show your I.D. anyway.”
    “It doesn’t matter if the law states that officers need a warrant from a judge to search your pockets/bag/car/home, just give your consent anyway.”
    “It doesn’t matter if the law states that officers need a warrant from a judge to collect your urine on the street, just give your urine anyway.”
    “They’re going to do what they want, no matter what you say, so just submit to their demands, even when not 警察官職務の執行に当たりとき.”
    Those kinds of “Law Doesn’t Matter” statements are dangerous, because the more people submit to illegal requests, the more illegal requests the police will make.

    And about The 3 Police Duties, remember, “abnormal behavior” is not enough to stop you (if it were, they could say “well, all gaijin behavior is abnormal behavior.” Ha-ha.)

    The law states “the officer must have seen you perform abnormal behavior AND (AND) he must have made a reasonable judgment that you are committing a CRIME.”

    So, rather than focusing on the weak+vague qualifier of “abnormal behavior”, it is much more effective to focus on the strong+specific qualifier of “reasonable judgment that you are committing a crime”.

    * 異常な挙動その他周囲の事情から合理的に判断して何らかの犯罪を犯し場合ではない。
    * 犯罪を犯そうとしていると疑うに足りる相当な理由のある者又場合ではない。
    * 既に行われた犯罪について、若しくは犯罪が行われようとしていることについて知つていると認められる者場合ではない。
    わたくしは、その三つの場合ではないので、警察官職務執行法第二条によりますと、停止させてことができる場合ではない。

    (尚、警察官職務執行法第二条によりますと、刑事訴訟に関する法律の規定によらない限り、身柄を拘束され、又はその意に反して警察署、派出所若しくは駐在所に連行され、若しくは答弁を強要されることはない。)
    (尚、警察法第百六十二号によりますと、この法律は我が国の全「個人」 にあてはまります、国籍は関係ありません。)

    * This is not a case where a reasonable judgment can be made that a crime is being committed by me.
    * This is not a case where there is sufficient reason to suspect that a crime is about to be committed by me.
    * This is not a case where knowledge about a past or future commission of a crime has been acknowledged by me.
    Since I am none of the above 3 cases, according to the Police Duties Execution Law Clause Two, this is not a situation where you can stop me.

    (Also, according to the Police Duties Execution Law Clause Two: unless there is a regulation relating to criminal action, officials may not confine, bring back to any police administration area, or else coerce a person to reply to questions against his will.)
    (Also, according to the Police Law Number 162, these laws apply to all individuals in Japan, no differentiation between nationalities.)

    Here is the 2006 Summary, which opened my eyes to The 3 Police Duties, and Police Law Number 162:
    http://shfocus.blogspot.jp/2006/05/japanese-law-on-spot-checks-printout_23.html

    I understand, Charuzu and Jim, that your concern is the chances of Police strong-arming us into giving up our law-written rights.
    But “the successful refusal of suspicion-less I.D. requests” which I linked to previously are evidence that “Stating The Law” works.

    Can you find any links that evidence your claim of the existence of “unsuccessful refusal of suspicion-less I.D. requests”?
    It sure would be interesting to read about someone who “Stated The Law” yet were somehow unsuccessful, or arrested.
    Currently, I see two clear accounts evidencing “the successful refusal of suspicion-less I.D. requests” in Japan by 外国人:

    http://www.debito.org/?p=5221
    http://www.locoinyokohama.com/2012/06/14/do-you-feel-youve-been-targeted-and-harassed-in-japan/comment-page-1/#comment-112491

    Your concern is rational, but so far no evidence has been posted here of arrest for “the refusal of suspicion-less I.D. requests”.

    Reply
  • Has anyone been able to confirm if under this new system that just started are we now exempt from reentry permits regardless if we have the new big brother card or not? OR are the only NJ exempt from reentry permits are the NJ That have already changed over to the new card??

    Reply
  • Mark in Yayoi says:

    @Charles – This is very disappointing news indeed. If that official is correct, then anyone on a three-year visa the day before the new system was introduced has now been made ineligible until his or her next visa renewal at the earliest. And if the renewal results in a three-year extension rather than five,

    My three-year visa is up for renewal in September, and I had been considering putting in an application for permanent residency when I go to the immigration office later this month. I’d still like to hear confirmation of this from other immigration branches before being certain, but it looks like I should probably wait until my new visa comes through and see how many years I get before possibly putting in a meaningless PR petition.

    @John – 3) They don’t put anything in your passport. They simply mark your old SOR stamp as cancelled. This means that unless you have a re-entry permit, there is no longer anything in your passport to indicate that you are a resident of Japan!

    This is very disturbing. Are you sure this isn’t an oversight? This means that long-term residents will have to take both their passports and their resident cards with them when leaving Japan, because unless the computer system can scan your passport number and match that up with visa records on their own system, how will Japanese immigration know that you have a status of residence? (The system probably should be able to pull up your records, in this computerized age.)

    I have a visa extension sticker, and whenever I return to Japan, that’s what gets scanned by the immigration officer. What gets scanned now? If your resident cars is lost or stolen overseas, how do you prove your residential status? Until now, having that info stored officially in two places (the passport and the ARC) was one of the few redeeming features of the ARC. Making everyone bring both documents with them when leaving and re-entering the country is unsafe. (I suppose they could require only the ZRK and not the passport, since the latter contains no useful information that isn’t on the ZRK, but you’d have a hard time getting into the country you’re leaving Japan for without a passport.)

    Reply
  • Debito,

    A bit off topic but slightly related;

    Please confirm as to if there has been a new law passed (July 9) concerning the expulsion of forigners who are working in excess of what they are limited to. Some people have expressed their concern to me about this new law, stating that several indviduals have already been expelled from Japan for working over their visa limitation for work hours. Seems a bit harsh to me, I mean they are not overstayers or doing drugs. Is this true? There is a new law for people who are on a work visa and are working extra hours?

    Reply
  • @charles I just called the immigration drones and they told me that you don’t have to finish a 5 year visa to be eligible for PR so you may want to ask your source to do his homework again.

    Reply
  • @Mark in Yayoi, #38:

    Yes, this is how it works for people who have renewed (newcomers *do* get a stamp. If only I understood the logic of this…) It’s mentioned in the video I linked to, but that is somewhere within a 42-minute marathon. See also:

    http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_1/pdf/NewResidencyManagementSystem-%28EN%29.pdf

    On p.13 of the above document, it says:

    “A new resident card will be issued to a mid- to long-term resident when a renewed period
    of stay, permission to change his/her resident status or a permanent resident permit is
    granted, or acquisition of resident status is admitted. ***(The passport will not be stamped).***” [My emphasis.]

    I cannot explain the reasoning behind this, but this is exactly what happened to me. A ‘cancellation’ stamp is now printed onto my old SOR, but my re-entry permit remains valid until expiry (which is not long from now, since I got it when I renewed three years ago). The same document, on p.6, says you must present your card (old or new; see note *1 on that page) on departure.

    They note your passport details when you renew (you give them on the application form), but these are apparently not on the database and certainly not on the new card. They do not link your database entry to your passport at all, so if you get a new passport, you do not have to inform them of the change. Your passport is now purely for entry and exit stamps, plus an optional re-entry permit. The new card (or your old ARC) is now the SOR stamp, effectively. (This is what the guy in the video says.)

    The obvious flaw, as you say, is what happens if you lose your residence card while abroad, since this is the only thing that proves you are a resident if you don’t have a re-entry permit. Heck, if you’re a national of a country whose citizens cannot enter visa-free, you’d probably have trouble even getting on the plane, since airline staff are supposed to check you have a visa. I have had airline staff demand to see a “visa” even though I am a national of a country whose citizens can walk into Japan visa-free as tourists. Either at the check-in desk or in front of a Japanese immigration officer, I suppose that it would be a case of producing other evidence, such as photocopies of documents or a Japanese driving licence, or being able to call someone who can back you up. Also be prepared to argue with airline staff who will not understand that Japan no longer issues residency stamps and that the proof they need is now on some ‘residence card’.

    I would be tempted to buy a new re-entry stamp anyway, in order to have something in the passport that shows residency status. Such an expense does, of course, eliminate the advantage of not needing one under the new system.

    @Jim, #40:

    Maybe it’s not so much finishing five years as being awarded it? I looked here:

    http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/tetuduki/zairyuu/guide_residence.html

    Under 3(c), it says that “The maximum period of stay allowed for the person with his/her current status of residence under Annexed Table 2 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act is to be fully utilized.” I am not sure what “fully utilized” means. It could mean that you have to use up most of the five years, or it could mean that you have to be awarded a five-year extension (or whatever the maximum period of your SOR is). Your information indicates the latter.

    Reply
  • @Jim

    I am curious about what your immigration office told you (because it may be different from what mine told me). What do you mean “don’t have to finish a 5[-]year visa to be eligible for PR?”

    Does that mean…
    A) …you must have a five-year visa, but that it doesn’t need to have been “finished?”
    OR
    B) …that a three-year visa will still suffice for a PR application as it did in the past?

    If it’s A, then that’s hardly a consolation. Because five-year visas will still likely be very, very hard to get. I say this because if you read what John (post #28) wrote, he was shot down for a five-year visa extension even though he has lived in Japan for a while and was extending from a three-year visa.

    If it’s B, and I can confirm this with other immigration offices, then I will literally jump for joy. However, based on your wording, it didn’t sound like you were saying B.

    I’m not sure I understand what you mean. Please clarify.

    Reply
  • One thing I forgot to add: actually, you should have the red-and-white disembarkation card stapled into your passport when you travel. That might not satisfy airline staff (in my experience, they only look for a “visa” stamp), but in theory the system here should have noted your departure via the embarkation card, and could match it with the disembarkation one. This is just my speculation, though. Of course, if you had lost the disembarkation card as well as your residence card, or if you had lost your passport altogether, then that would be a problem. I would expect a grilling from immigration if you didn’t have the residence card/ARC, since anyone could obtain a re-entrant (dis)embarkation slip and insert it into their passport because they are freely available at ports. But in theory someone pretending to be a resident who has lost their residence card should be picked out because their embarkation card wouldn’t have been recorded on exit.

    Reply
  • @Charles: yep, five-year SORs may turn out to be a rare thing. I have been in Japan for nearly seven years and this was my second renewal. For all that time, I have been on the same SOR type, one that now allows five years, but I only got three. Maybe it’s a strategy to make you really earn PR.

    Regarding the red-and-white disembarkation card that I mentioned above: the one thing I am wondering about is how immigration would know that your SOR hadn’t expired while you were abroad, since now there is no SOR stamp in the passport. You would have an exit stamp and a re-entrant disembarkation card in your passport, but those might only prove that you left as a legal re-entrant. If they did not have details of your SOR linked to the (dis)embarkation card details, you had lost your residence card, and you didn’t have a re-entry permit… how would they know you still had a valid SOR?

    Reply
  • But surely this PR thing depends not on what the current range of visa lengths is, but rather “Annexed Table 2 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act”, which presumably is years old.

    Unless someone has specifically updated the PR requirements…about which I have not found any details.

    Reply
  • @ Charles its b, a 3 year visa will still suffice for a PR application as it did in the past. I called the immigration earlier today and was told that straight from the drones mouth.

    Reply
  • @ Mike, “Please confirm as to if there has been a new law passed (July 9) concerning the expulsion of forigners who are working in excess of what they are limited to. Some people have expressed their concern to me about this new law, stating that several indviduals have already been expelled from Japan for working over their visa limitation for work hours. Seems a bit harsh to me, I mean they are not overstayers or doing drugs. Is this true? There is a new law for people who are on a work visa and are working extra hours?”

    My ex was expelled in 2003 for basically just that; working more than hours allowed. I thought it was harsh then-surely you would get a warning or a fine? but nope, straight to jail and deportation. I hired a lawyer and it did no good, the “appeal” was pointless. She was barred for 5 years, but 7 years later they still would not let her in. Why we will never know. It was part of my decision to leave Japan.

    On a site note, this creates a conundrum, n’est pas? Your employer asks you, say a Chinese laborer, to do overtime or fill in for someone sick etc etc. You are under pressure from them to do so, but you are breaking the law, and thus more dependent on the good will of your employer or immigration.

    Quite arbitrary, and how typical. This is how they like it.

    Reply
  • Jim, beware the immigration drones. Every time I have called for information, they have got it wrong. For example, I called and asked about change of status of residence within Japan and was told without qualification, “You can’t change from 短期滞在 to working visa without a certificate of eligibility and leaving country.”
    – I did exactly what they said I couldn’t do within a week after getting this “information” straight from the horse’s mouth, with no trouble or delays.

    You can’t get an answer from a serious MOJ person who knows what they’re talking about unless you go ahead and apply. Cost for a failed PR application: 0 yen. Give it a go and let us know what happens, Charles!

    Reply
  • @Jim

    I really hope you’re right. My immigration office said that a five-year period of stay was a requirement to apply for PR starting on 7/9, but then again, my local immigration office is widely known for being strict and stingy in ways that other immigration offices aren’t. In fact, the Mie Jets home page specifically cites my immigration office as one that rarely ever hands out three-year extensions (even to people who came into the country on a three-year visa and are renewing after being in Japan for three years) and when I asked my boss, she said that in over 10 years of operation, none of her teachers has ever gotten a three-year extension from the Yokkaichi Immigration Office.

    So I guess there are two lessons to be learned from this:

    1. I need to check with other immigration offices. Because there may be multiple interpretations of the law (often seems to be the case in Japan), and the Yokkaichi Immigration Office is going to tell me the strictest one.

    2. Perhaps in the future, when I file for extensions, I need to start going to another immigration office. Because according to all my sources, getting a five-year extension, hell, even a three-year extension, is next to impossible at the Yokkaichi Immigration Office.

    Reply
  • Anonymous #35

    I agree that “But “the successful refusal of suspicion-less I.D. requests” which I linked to previously are evidence that “Stating The Law” works” AT TIMES.

    Yet, I also am struck by the arbitrary requirements (such as the example offered by Flyjin#47) that exist.

    Moreover, I note that the two experiences you provide (by Aly Rustom and Ariel) themselves raise questions that heighten my concerns.

    Ariel states when she went to a police station to file a complaint that “the police will only let you file an official complaint if they agree that one of their officers acted inappropriately”

    If so, then that strengthens my concerns that the de facto legal requirements are different than the de jure requirements, inasmuch as a complaint cannot even be filed for potential investigation unless the police agree to that (perhaps local friends of the police in question)

    And for the Aly Rustom example, he engaged in his verbal argument in a location that he indicates was in the middle of public view with many passers by to witness the exchange.

    If, in contrast, that same exchange had occurred in a more secluded location, would the result have been the same?

    I know from friends who are gay J that they have received beatings from police for no apparent reason.

    I have to assume that a NJ would be at least as vulnerable as a J, even one who is marginalized.

    — Beatings where? In detention?

    Reply

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