{"id":454,"date":"2007-06-17T08:53:34","date_gmt":"2007-06-16T23:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=454"},"modified":"2008-04-23T12:14:03","modified_gmt":"2008-04-23T03:14:03","slug":"moj-website-on-fingerprintingphotos-at-immigration-from-nov-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=454","title":{"rendered":"MOJ Website on fingerprinting\/photos at Immigration from Nov 2007 (UPDATED)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Blog. Lovely bit of Japanicana at the GOJ online TV network. Except that as well as being kinda weird and laughably amusing, it’s deadly serious about targeting foreigners as potential terrorists.<\/p>\n

Friend just sent me a link to a new site talking about the new Immigration procedures coming into effect in November 2007, which will involve taking fingerprints and photographing of all “foreign visitors” crossing the border into Japan.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/nettv.gov-online.go.jp\/prg\/prg1203.html<\/a><\/p>\n

This will, however, not be restricted to “foreign visitors”. It will be applied to everyone BUT (quoting the website):<\/p>\n

==========================
\n1. Persons under the age of 16
\n2. Special status permanent residents
\n[presumably the Zainichi generational “foreigners”, which means regular-status permanent-resident immigrants are NOT exempt]
\n3. Those performing actions which would be performed [sic] by those with a status of residence, “diplomat” or “official government business”<\/b>
\n==========================<\/p>\n

Which means even people who are long-term residents will get fingerprinting reinstated, despite having it abolished after decades of protest in 1999 (See article with more details at https:\/\/www.debito.org\/fingerprinting.html<\/a>)<\/p>\n

And this time, if you don’t comply, you can’t take it to court (like Kathy Morikawa and others did). You’re just refused entry at the border.<\/p>\n

GOJ’s justification? Prevention of terrorism, and the “safety of foreign visitors”. <\/p>\n

The video in English is a hoot too, wheeling out a few token foreigners of color hamming it up, and agreeing to have their privacy violated on suspicion of terrorism. <\/p>\n

But the irony here is that all the terrorist activities that have happened so far in Japan (from Aum on down) have been Japanese. <\/p>\n

The association of foreigners with terrorism (moreover apparently helping to save them from themselves) is pretty presumptuous.<\/p>\n

Why are they doing this? Because they can. If the GOJ were really serious about combatting terrorism, they would fingerprint everybody. But they can’t. They tried this before years ago with widespread protest. Look what happened to the failed Juki-Net system with universal ID cards (it was even ruled unconstitutional in December 2006, see https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=97<\/a><\/p>\n

The GOJ info site on fingerprinting is at
\nhttp:\/\/nettv.gov-online.go.jp\/prg\/prg1203.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Distressed about this? More on what you can do about it here:
\nhttps:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=627<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

REFERENTIAL LINKS:
\nTrace the arc of this policy proposal as it became law at:<\/p>\n

THE ZEIT GIST
\nHere comes the fear
\nAntiterrorist law creates legal conundrums for foreign residents
\nBy DEBITO ARUDOU
\nColumn 21 for the Japan Times Community page, MAY 24, 2005
\nhttps:\/\/www.debito.org\/japantimes052405.html<\/a><\/p>\n

THE NEW “I C YOU” CARDS
\nLDP proposal to computer chip foreigners has great potential for abuse
\nBy Arudou Debito
\nColumn 26 for the Japan Times Community Page November 22, 2005
\nhttps:\/\/www.debito.org\/japantimes112205.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Arudou Debito in Sapporo<\/p>\n

============================
\n–UPDATE JULY 2, 2007
\nMARK MINO-THOMPSON OF THE COMMUNITY<\/a> ADDS:<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

I decided to call around to a few places in Japan, specifically to
\nget the official word on what new immigration procedures will be
\nhappening at airports starting in November. I called the Ministry
\nof Justice Immigration Division (General Affairs), Narita
\nImmigration and Japan’s Foreigner(?) Human Rights Bureau. <\/p>\n

First off, not that I expected much from Houmushou, but I was able
\nto get the person answering the phone to confirm that all
\nforeigners, except Zainichi and government staff on offical business
\nwill be photographed and printed each time they enter and exit
\nJapan. When I suggested that this procedure could be seen as
\ninvasive to long-term visa holders and permanent residents (who have
\nalready gone through an extensive vetting process by immigration) he
\nsimply restated that all foreign guests would have to submit their
\nbiometric data. Of course, I do understand that front-line
\ngovernment staff have no power to comment on laws nor to change
\nthem. I thanked him for his info and asked that please pass on my
\nconcerns to his superiors.<\/p>\n

Narita Immigration also confirmed the same information, although
\nthey were slightly more sympathetic in tone of voice. I asked them
\nwhat the procedure would be for international families entering
\nJapan. Would they be forced to separate into foreigner and Japanese
\nlines at immigration or would they be able to enter together as is
\ncurrently. The woman explained to me that situations like this are
\nbeing debated within the department, but as far as the plan goes for
\nnow, she believes that all foreigners will have to use the “foreign
\nnational” line. She did add that front-line staff at Narita are
\nhoping to have one or more booths on the “Japanese National” side be
\nable to handle reentry permit holders. I also asked her a
\nhypothetical question about what were to happen if a permanent
\nresident visa holder with a valid re-entry permit were to refuse to
\nget printed and photographed. “They would be denied entry into
\nJapan.” she said.<\/p>\n

Finally, after being given the number from the woman at Nartia
\nImmigration, I called a number of an organization dealing with human
\nrights for foreigners in japan. I spoke to a nice woman who was
\nwell aware of the upcoming regulations. I asked her whether the
\norganization felt this legislation was a violation of human rights,
\nand if so, would they be writing some sort of report to the
\ngovernment. She said that they really can’t make a statement about
\nsomething being a human rights violation until AFTER it has been put
\ninto place. In other words, they’re adopting a wait-and-see
\napproach. She further added that if there comes a time in which
\nthey feel these new procedures ARE infringing in foreigners human
\nrights, they will consider writing a report to that fact to the
\nMinistry of Justice. (although, by then millions of foreigners will
\nhave their biometric data collected and stored on some huge, on-line
\ndatabase that other government agencies will have access to).<\/p>\n

Well, that’s where it stands at the moment. Any chance that we can
\nget the media to talk about this again before November? It seemed
\nfrom articles months ago and several Ministries were surprised and
\nconcerned that this new policy was blanketing the entire non-
\nZainichi foreign population. Perhaps there’s still hope for getting
\nthis revised?<\/p>\n

Mark Mino-Thompson<\/p>\n

ENDS\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friend just sent me a link to a new site talking about the new Immigration procedures coming into effect in November 2007, which will involve taking fingerprints and photographing of all “foreign visitors” crossing the border into Japan. This will, however, not be restricted to “foreign visitors”. It will be applied to everyone who is not a Zainichi, a youth, or a diplomat. Which means even permanent resident immigrants will be treated like potential terrorists and have fingerprint requirements reinstated in November, after decades of protest against them led to their abolition in 1999. Video in English explaining all this is a hoot, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,5,12,26,4,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fingerprinting-nj","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-government","category-problematic-foreign-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","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=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}