{"id":15121,"date":"2018-08-20T11:07:23","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T21:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=15121"},"modified":"2018-08-23T13:25:33","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T23:25:33","slug":"tj-on-doing-a-debito-gaijin-carded-at-nagoya-airport-and-airport-comfort-inn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=15121","title":{"rendered":"TJ on “Doing a Debito”: Gaijin Carded at Nagoya Airport and Airport Comfort Inn"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0Every now and again I hear from people how Debito.org has been helpful in dealing with daily life in Japan. \u00a0Here’s one such example. \u00a0After more than twenty years of the Debito.org Archive<\/a>, and ten years of the Debito.org Blog, things like this make it all worth it. \u00a0Thanks for writing in, TJ. \u00a0Dr. Debito Arudou<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

To: debito@debito.org<\/strong>
\nFrom: TJ<\/strong>
\nDate: August 12, 2018<\/strong>
\nSubject: Well, I put on my Debito hat today!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m an American married to a Japanese, and we’re on an adventure doing standby flights from Japan to overseas. However, unluckily we got bumped at Nagoya Airport. So we checked into a Comfort Inn at the airport in my (Japanese) spouse’s name.<\/em><\/p>\n

He filled out the card for our twin room. But the receptionist looked at me and said that she needed to photocopy my passport. But I know from Debito.org<\/a> that she doesn’t have the legal obligation to photocopy my passport, or even see any ID, when I have a Japanese address as a Japanese resident<\/a>, and I told her so. So she said she needed to copy my “Gaijin Card”, or Zairyuu Residence Card.<\/em><\/p>\n

I gave her a chotto matte kudasai… and dug out that nifty Japanese paper you posted on Debito.org years ago<\/a> and I held it up to her to read, showing her the letter of the law that says that ID is only required for tourists, not for residents of Japan, including foreign residents.<\/em><\/p>\n

(https:\/\/www.debito.org\/whatif-id-check.doc<\/a><\/strong>
\nfrom https:\/\/www.debito.org\/residentspage.html#checkpoints)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Another receptionist came over to investigate, and I repeated that I live in Japan permanently. Basically, the other woman\u2019s attitude was since my Japanese spouse was with me, I didn\u2019t have to hand any ID to be photocopied. Because I’m “one of the good ones”. Not a win, but I don\u2019t think she expected me to stand my ground the way I did.<\/em><\/p>\n

I cannot understand why they need my most intimate and personal information photocopied. What is done with it later? How is it disposed of? It seems like a waste of paper, toner, etc., and because of identity theft, it makes me really nervous.<\/em><\/p>\n

So… fresh off this experience, we went out to dinner at Nagoya Airport. The hotel is connected so we went back over. My spouse popped into a shop to get toiletries and I sat down in a public chair to wait.<\/em><\/p>\n

A security guard — I wasn’t sure if he was a police officer, but my spouse later thinks he was — came up and said he was randomly checking passengers’ passports.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, I answered in fluent Japanese, which I think he did not expect and threw him off. I explained I am staying at a hotel at the airport and am with a friend who is in the shop over there and we are having dinner. I didn\u2019t have a passport, so I flashed my Zairyuu Residence Card.<\/em><\/p>\n

But that wasn’t enough. He said he needed me to remove it from my wallet so he could make a written \u201cmemo\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, I’m a pretty easygoing person. But at this point my aggressive alter ego, I call him \u201cPinky\u201d, came out and refused to comply. Pinky told him he was targeting only foreigners, and that wasn’t right, even from a legal standpoint<\/a>. And at that point my spouse walked up, but could see Pinky had taken over and stepped back to let us handle it.<\/em><\/p>\n

The security guard eventually backed down, but again, I know it\u2019s because a Japanese was with me. He tried to compliment my Japanese but Pinky wasn\u2019t having it. Pinky told him that I have lived in Japan longer than he has. He was some 20 year old kid who has a tin badge and hat, and thinks he can boss people around and invade their privacy without just cause.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, I went over to a comment box for Nagoya Airport and wrote a lengthy complaint. It probably won\u2019t even get read, but it made me feel better. The point is, thousands of other people, including foreigners were in the vestibule, and I was basically getting targeted for \u201csitting while being a foreigner.\u201d So much for kokusaika ahead of the Olympics. Geez. Not very welcoming.<\/em><\/p>\n

These instances immediately took me back to the time some years ago when we invited you to speak at our university, and how you handled that hotel clerk who Gaijin-carded<\/a> you. You knew the law and your ground<\/a>. So did I. And Pinky.<\/em><\/p>\n

Debito-sensei, arigato! — TJ.<\/strong><\/p>\n

==========================
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Submitter TJ: I’m an American married to a Japanese, and we’re on an adventure doing standby flights from Japan to overseas. However, unluckily we got bumped at Nagoya Airport. So we checked into a Comfort Inn at the airport in my (Japanese) spouse’s name. He filled out the card for our twin room. But the receptionist looked at me and said that she needed to photocopy my passport. But I know from Debito.org that she doesn’t have the legal obligation to photocopy my passport, or even see any ID, when I have a Japanese address as a Japanese resident, and I told her so. So she said she needed to copy my “Gaijin Card”, or Zairyuu Residence Card.<\/p>\n

I gave her a chotto matte kudasai… and dug out that nifty Japanese paper you posted on Debito.org years ago and I held it up to her to read, showing her the letter of the law that says that ID is only required for tourists, not for residents of Japan, including foreign residents. Another receptionist came over to investigate, and I repeated that I live in Japan permanently. Basically, the other woman\u2019s attitude was since my Japanese spouse was with me, I didn\u2019t have to hand any ID to be photocopied. Because I’m “one of the good ones”. Not a win, but I don\u2019t think she expected me to stand my ground the way I did. Thanks to Debito.org. But then I got carded again by Nagoya Airport Security for sitting in the airport lobby while foreign…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,54,28,33,35,10,46,11,55,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-pinprick-protests","category-anti-discrimination-templates","category-fingerprinting-nj","category-good-news","category-japanese-policeforeign-crime","category-practical-advice","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-tourism","category-victories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15121"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15125,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15121\/revisions\/15125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}