Japan to start finger printing visitors

[JonB]

I am suprised that I have not seen news about this here but from 20th November Japan with finger print and photgraph all visitors to Japan - including non-Japanese nationals living here.

Here are some links for you to peruse:
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/419607
http://www.stippy.com/japan-news-and-media/foreigners-landing-in-japan-to-be-fingerprinted/
http://www.debito.org/index.php/?p=454

I don't want to go into the rights and wrongs of this - just to bring it to your awareness. Just one comment that in the days before my re-entry permit I sometimes waited more than an hour in immigration...

[annie]

Funny, I've always waited longer in the Japanese citizen/residents line.
Though, I've never waited more than about 10 minutes.

And, I love that every single time I go through immigration another person in line tries to kick me out of line in really mediocre English.

I waited at least 30 minutes the when I flew into London Stansted this summer and I was the 2nd person in line.

Probably clearing U.S. customs & immigration takes at least 30 minutes as a US citizen.

[Alpo]

It's been in the news for awhile now (months) but since the time to implement the program is nearing, it's getting a secong round of coverage in the news.

As far as customs in Japan is concerned... the quickest time for me was when I grabbed the last flight of the day out of LAX and the flight got delayed an additional 2 hours on the tarmac. I guess maybe coming in at abnormal times had something to do with it?

[Ulver_684]

I am suprised that I have not seen news about this here but from 20th November Japan with finger print and photgraph all visitors to Japan - including non-Japanese nationals living here.

Here are some links for you to peruse:
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/419607
http://www.stippy.com/japan-news-and-media/foreigners-landing-in-japan-to-be-fingerprinted/
http://www.debito.org/index.php/?p=454

I don't want to go into the rights and wrongs of this - just to bring it to your awareness. Just one comment that in the days before my re-entry permit I sometimes waited more than an hour in immigration...

JonB-san!

That's great, I want to give my Japanese people my fingerprints and photo if they want to, everything.

[ピーターズ]

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2chtpx

Are all ten fingerprints collected, or just two?

[untmdsprt]

Just the two pointer fingers are needed. They also take your photograph with a webcam type camera.

I'm finally in Japan, and I don't recall it taking a long time going through immigration. They seem more efficient than in the states.

Personally, I want a right to my privacy, but I understand that Japan is trying to protect its citizens from the morons who want to bomb this country like they do the states. As long as they don't use my photograph to harrass me, then I'm ok with it.

[Belton]

What wasn't as well documented is the need for everyone to submit a written customs declaration now by the way.

It was fairly quick the last time I went through. Actually the quickest so far. I breezed through with no waiting. They seemed to have extra staff. And this time the officer only wanted to print and shoot not talk.
He was nice about it too, as is characteristic of any of my very minimal and brief dealings with security and police types in Japanese airports in contrast to airports I've been elsewhere.

It's a case of しょうがない,
I don't especially like being treated this way (prints and mugshot), but there's not much you can do.

But the whole terrorist thing is mostly window dressing. The far more practical use of the system is in catching visa violators and foreign pretty criminals.

Also fair enough I suppose.

But it has wider implications in Japan.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ ... 108zg.html

The fact that non-nationals are an easy target for measures such as these in *any* country, not so good. That no country is willing to protest at it's citizens treatment in this way, not so good. That we will all live in fear of the bogeyman, not so good. The fact that such treatment will be seen as the norm from now on, not so good.

I'm waiting to see who will be first in taking DNA samples. Or who manages to extend it to everyone crossing a border, citizen and visitor alike. Or what happens when it all goes Kafka-esque and people get hauled off because of a false positives.

And I must say that the global rise in xenophobia being acceptable and resurgent nationalism is fairly depressing.

[sashimidimsum7250]

I got to experience being finger-printed on my recent trip to Osaka last month. Let me first say that I do think the practice is descriminatory, and I wish it didn't have to be so, but if you want to go to Japan, you need to respect their rules. I'm of the attitute that you need to make the most of the situation. If you go in with a bad attitute. then your experience is going to suck, plain and simple.

Anyhow, when we arrived in the Kansai airport, we were directled the foreigner line. It was huge! There had to have been hundreds of people waiting before us. I didn't get an accurate count, but it seemed like 200 at least. Anyhow, in total we waited about 20 minutes to get to the front. They had 4 booths open for foreigners, and 2 for Japanese. When the Japanese line was empty foreigners were directed that way. It was pretty efficient, and it seemed that people were being processed at a good pace. There were some who had problems with the finger print scanning machine, but most seemed OK.

When it was our turn, we handed in our passport. We were instructed to put the index finger of each hand into this machine. When prompted, we pushed down with each finger for the machine to read our fingerprint. When you heard a pleasant bell, you were OK, otherwise you got an unpleasant sound. I got the bell. Next we were prompted to look at this mirror in front of us, with a countdown 3, 2,1....and with that our picture was taken. Pretty easy. All in all, I don't think it took that long to be processed.

Anyhow, for me at least, the experience was fine, and without incident.