I want to go to Japan just to get my portrait made. Sounds a lot better than a mug shot or the damned passport photos.

Here's the rub: all they want is to protect themselves, just like we do, just like you do. For you, it's just a hoop. I mean, c'mon, man: how could they not love you? Look how cuddly you are! Like a great big, cuddly teddy bear.

Yeah. I need to lay off the hootch so early in the morning.

It's an interesting topic, because both sides of the coin have valid arguments. I guess it's just one of those "price of freedom" things.

Happy birthday to the missus.

When you say biometric, does that mean they do it digitally now, or this is still the old roll-finger-in-ink fingerprinting style? An interesting system, one I am not too partial to, but I can see how this can benefit the country. At least they are not doing iris scans or palm feature detection, which is what some government agencies are starting in the States these days. Next stop, Minority Report.

Isnt it great how Japan loves following in the footsteps of the US?

Its just another way of the J govt to go about wasting taxpayers money.

Since seriously, the only terrorist attacks that have occured here were home grown.

I've been here a while, but didn't know that they can't fingerprint nationals excpet if they commit a crime.

I guess I don't mind fingerprinting so much - my fingerprints have been on file with my local Atlanta, GA police station since I was like 6y.o. so the police would have something to track me by in case of emergency (something I recommend you have your kids do, American parents).

And since the US has been fingerprinting, I haven't complained about it here in Japan, but I do think it's odd how hard Japan is cracking down, since most of the drug runners and other problems are actually increasingly Japanese nationals, since the cops always crack down on the foreigners.

They really can't keep doing this level of profiling and discrimination, it's hurting Japanese efforts to combat crime than helping.

Of course, the Japanese can't even hire enough doctors to do forensics, so I guess they have to show they are doing something besides checking bicycle registration...

Hey Brian, do you know if the pre-registration has any value what-so-ever? Will it simply eliminate the initial registering at the airport? After all we have to get printed everytime we enter... so what benefit is it?

1. US adopts a draconian policy, gets widely panned, generates hate
2. Japan follows step, and makes an even more draconian policy. I don't expect this to work any better.

And yes it is their country, so if they want to drive way businessmen, English teachers, tourists, etc, it's their right - they just have to deal with the consequences.

Remember how they kicked out the Portuguese when they brought their different ways and firearms to Japan for the first time ever to the japanese way of life. Sure, at least we also gave them coffe, but that didnt stop them from kicking us out. Guess those measures are just the new reality of modern day Japan: very evolved, but always very cautious about keeping their ways. One turly self-protective nation.

@LunchViking:
I dunno! I'll tell you after I do it.

@Akin: Draconian policy? That's a laugh. Maybe you need to travel to Europe, see how they do things there.

@CyricZ:

guess what. real freedom has no price.

Maybe i didn't read this slow enough and just missed something, but they're just fingerprinting foreigners right? To prevent terrorism? Even if all recorded incidents of terrorism have been home grown, it's still better safe than sorry in the world we're living in now.

But as for seeing a movie at 9:30am, good god, when does your day start? I don't think i'll ever see a movie that early ever...

Well...cracking down AS hard as the U.S.

I think this sort of thing is silly for any nation to do, though, U.S. and Europe included. It would not have caught the 9/11 hijackers, the Madrid bombers, the London bombers, or anyone else.

It's only slightly above the "no liquids" rule on the Chart of Paranoid Idiocy.

I saw this last night in the news and have mixed feelings about it.

I guess using the ruse of "Anti-terrorism" to please xenophobic nationalist bureaucrats doesn't just exist in America.

Japan has the right to monitor its borders, but the reasoning behind this move is a bit outlandish. It's not like Sweden or anything, that opened up the flood gates to everyone that wanted in (like myself at one point) and now suffers from a staggering crime rate and record low unemployment rate.

Japan was never easy to get into permanently in the first place.

By the way, look up "Passport chips" and be pleasantly surprised at what the US is about to do with your passport. It makes this new policy in Japan look like playing cops and robbers in kindergarten.

Um I could have told you that the Japanese are very nationalistic.

Ashcraft said:

"Then again, permanent residents don't have the right to vote (nor should they, I think)"

Just out of interest Brian, why do you say that?

I noticed the signs saying this a few months ago when I was entering Japan. Not seen them before and, as an avid security nerd and someone who is very much opposed to this type of thing, I was concerned that my morals would mean I would not be allowed into the country.

Of course, I had nothing to worry about because it wasn't mandatory then but I now fear that the next time we visit the other halfs family in Shizuoka, I may have to stay at home. As I read the other day, Japan and America are quite happy to exchange notes on which foreigners are entering their countries to each other and that is something I am not happy about.

Yeah because everyone knows that bloody foreigners are responsible for everything!
In all seriousness I don't expect to have the same rights as a citizen in any country I go to, but this kind of profiling has time and again proven to be a waste of time and resources.
Profiling apologists always like to say "hey, I've got nothing to hide", but the fact is your fingerprints can and will end up all over the place and I'd love to see anyone defend themselves from Japanese prosecution in this kind of situation.

@ashcraft: Nice, appreciated.

Everytime I visit the US I get fingerprinted / have a quick shot taken.

What makes me laugh are the little LED displays above the counters, some of which haven't actually been configured in the years they've been there.

Which means they display their default animations.

Which means there's one of a bomb going off which I giggle at every time I see it.

@kiigan:

Because it's an issue here with some of the community.

Because of Japan's treatment of foreigners isn't always fair (to put it politely), there are some residents who want to have more input in the government.

For example : Even if you are a temporary worker, lets say for 2-3 years, you have to pay into the pension fund of Japan. But since you aren't staying in the country long enough to collect that pension, you are allowed to apply for that money back. It takes months to process, you lose extra money in the exchange rate changes (since you don't get your money back until after you've gone home, the government gives you the money in yen, and unless you worked enough to have a large payout, you lose money due to the small size of the transfer), and you don't get all of the money anyway.

Anyone more familiar with the return % give that little detail? I've heard everywhere from 70% to 90% return. Regardless, it's not all you paid.

So, who wouldn't want to speak up and ask for a change? Of course, Japanese nationals really don't mind taking money from foreigners, so most native politicians aren't going to listen to a foreigner as we can't vote or have any say in the government.

So I'm not sure voting is the way to go either, but foreigners do need more ways to work with the government directly.

Speaking as an expat and a bit of a privacy advocate, I'm surprised how many people here don't understand why people get upset about the fingerprinting.

Just for starters, when a government requires your fingerprints (even when you've been a law-abiding model citizen for years) it feels like a slap in the face. They're essentially saying that they don't trust you and no matter how well you fit in that you're still a damn foreigner and you always will be. When a country becomes your adopted home, this is a genuinely hurtful experience. Even in the US, as a native citizen, these measures feel invasive and harmful to me.

Secondly, why should the government have my fingerprints on file, honestly? Do you really trust them with that information? In the case of the US, whom the Japanese are basing this policy off of, who here remembers the Veteran's Affairs department links just a few years ago? Part of my problem with increased information retention and gathering by the government is that historically they do bad job with it. Every year they release the Congressional IT security reports and every year you see that half the government is just begging to release your SSN to the world. I can't wait until we move to biometrics and my unchangable fingerprint gets leaked, oh goody good joy!

Third, this fingerprinting move is just a step toward DNA registration which just patently wrong in my mind. Besides, this sort of legistlation will start with foreigners and felons then move onto soldiers and then onto the general populace, mark my words.

Fourth, whatever happened to the expectation of reasonable privacy? The ability to speak one's mind without fear of retribution has always been key to a democratic society. Now we have a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who doesn't believe in a constitutional right to privacy and I fear that most people do not realize the full brunt of what that entails. For the people outside the US who believe this doesn't effect them, Mr. Bashcraft is being affected by an essentially exported version of our law.

Believe me, I'm not a tiny-government free-market-hugging Ron-Paul-worshipping libertarian sort. I think government should be active in people's lives, lending a helping hand, providing services to citizens and foreigners alike. But to do that, governments do not need fingerprints, wiretaps, DNA swabs, library records, national ID cards, or data mining. They need college scholarships, and health insurance, and social assistance. Even law enforcement used to be "Protect and Serve", today it seems more like "Investigate and Control."

Sorry if this rant ran overlong for a quickie Kotaku comments section, not my intent to rant and rave. But if you don't see a problem with this sort of thing, please: stop and think about it. For the rest of us, at the very least.

When i was living in Japan, I was surprised how common it was to blame foreigners for crime. Usually the Koreans and Chinese got the blunt of it, though. Americans were blamed for corrupting the youth by making it "cool" to eat in public.

> What worries me is that Japan hasn't yet experience foreign terrorism, and yet the country is cracking down harder than the US

Is it just me, or isn't it best to take preventative measures _before_ something happens? I had to get fingerprints for my green card a long while back, didn't really bother me other than the fact that I felt government workers should try speeding up their processes a bit.

Oh yeah, here's a few more responses from one part of the 2ch community: [blog.livedoor.jp]

@jwrose: Add gays and blacks to that and its no different in the US.

While countries love to see progressive, ALL countries in reality have a underlying current of hate toward some group.

came back to Japan today from my trip to Korea. was pretty surprised since i have been here 6 times since last year. No problem thou, took bout 5 minutes total. all Hail the Gaikokujin Inspectors !

Well, that kind of sucks. I guess all the hundreds of years of isolationism and xenophobia are gonna take a little while longer to wear off, huh?

Ah, fuck it. Who am I kidding? You run into soft racism, xenophobia, bigotry, and good old fashion "ZOMG, MEXICANT!" in every country on Earth, in one form of another. At least they arn't rounding up the Americans and putting them in camps. (too soon?)

Ironically, that crazy lizard part of out brain that tells us to distrust that which is different is, perhaps, the one thing we all have in common!

Japan, like the US, has every right to protect themselves in the way they best see fit. If you don't like it, don't go to Japan. Simple as that.

I could care less if Japan has my fingerprint and picture. The US obviously knows I'm traveling somewhere to begin with, so if Japan shares it with the US that's cool too.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see the big deal with this. If it offends you to be asked to give fingerprints and a picture (when they already have your passport info on file anyway), then you're seriously oversensitive and possibly overly paranoid too.

@jwrose:

Eating in public is "corrupting the youth"?
...
Japan is kind of famous for having barely any crime. But in my uninformed opinion, it seems more and more like half its entire culture is paying for that with the almost ridiculous emphasis on things like this...

Japan is very strict on who they let in. My brother was deported upon arrival in Tokyo last year when he claimed he committed a felony on that paper thing you fill out on the airplane. It's a part on their cultural personality and their aggressive security. I'm Japanese-American and I sometimes feel that Japan just lives out in a sense of fear.

This posts you make are usually very informative, Ashcraft. I have no idea what a Zainichi Korean was previously.

The world is getting smaller. It's getting damned hard to get around without having some number tied to your name, which is a shame. Does Japan have a lot of CC-TV like the UK does? I can deal with a fingerprint and a mugshot, but having video cameras...everywhere? Not so much.

I really hope that they do get rid of this law before I head back in a couple years. I personally didn't mind the gaijin card. One finger? That's fine. But I don't think that people will stand for an entire booking. It's really not fair to those who just want to live their lives in Japan and be with family. Even for me, a student, this is going to be horrible. I'll be traveling back and forth quite a bit. It's just a pain in the ass.

If I ever go to Japan to visit or live,They can have my fingerprint. Why not? Since I don't plan on committing a crime,I have no reason to hide.
I'm a natural born citizen of the U.S.,the shining beacon of freedom,and I have to provide government I.D. every time I purchase Sudafed,and my phone calls are recorded by the feds.

Oh look 1984 already....

I'm a US permanent resident and I was required to be fingerprinted as part of my Permanent resident application. I'm pretty sure the US fingerprints all new foreign residents now (I don't believe they are backdating the process).

@muu:

I just read 653 posts from that, and my anger level is nuts.

It could be some right wing group got all its members to post there, but what a bunch of ridiculousness. Not even one good reason why fingerprinting is bad. The only even remotely logical comment on there was "well, if foreigners hate it so much, make everyone get printed," when that's not the issue. Everyone else was just saying "It's the governments job to protect its citizens" or "if you don't like Japan's rules, go home", or some things that were downright racist.

I know that kind of stuff goes on everywhere, but it still upsets when you see it first hand.

And after @Orez comment, I really disagree with fingerprinting in any country. It doesn't help unless they've been conviting of a crime in the country already, and it just creates security leaks as we move towards biometric locks in our lives. Now that I've thought more about it, police should rely on traditional methods of crime prevention, and allows us to keep our bodies private.

Something else to keep in mind: In Japanese history, all instances of terrorism have been carried out by Japanese nationals.

On the other hand, a large percentage of street crime is committed by foreigners.

Who says this is all about terrorism?

Anyway, what business is it of ours to tell Japan how to handle immigration into their country? This is a nation with a history that's literally thousands of years older than ours. We have a "tradition" of immigration in this country that dates back just 200 years and even we are having a debate about keeping our borders open. I think that over the past 2000 years, they've earned the right to handle their immigration issues however they see fit.

So you're a foreigner in Japan and you need to give up your fingerprints. This is the sound of world's smallest violin playing.

@ビッグ ボス:

I'm personally against this because the system is broken and a waste of time and money (my tax money as well, hey I pay shitloads of Japanese tax) - not because I hate to have my finger prints taken. And I don't think I'm alone. Heck I have my finger prints registered with the HK government as a PR resident of HK, but at least it allows me to use the automated biometric gates which lets me go in and out of the country in 2 minutes (literally) - and HK doesn't even finger print foreigners entering its boarders. My other homeland - Australia - also don't do stupid shit like this, and Australia is much higher on the "hate" list for terrorists as well as having a Bush lap dog as a prime minister.

As others have pointed out, the risk of domestic terrorism is far far greater than that of foreign terrorism, they are basically going head-over-heels in tackling a minor issue while ignoring a bigger threat. If they want to go for "secruity", finger print everyone I say. That's the issue I have with this law - it's not because it's racists, it's because it's stupid and unrational.

I personally think its stupid, since theres so many other things they need to improve even before wasting all of this taxpayer $$$ on fingerprints and photos.

I could care less that they have my fingerprints and photos, well they already do anyways since I first got here due to the type of visa I have, but what pisses me off is as a taxpayer there are far better things they could be using the $$$ on, than some farce security measure that is just for show.

C'mon guys! I went to grad school in the US after 9/11 and being a foreigner, I have to say that it's real hard to get a visa, that you get treated like s*** by immigration officers and that they take your fingerprints all the time! I mean even when I came back to the US after staying for Christmas in my country, I got all these stupid questions like what I was doing for 2 weeks in my country (Xmas? anyone?). So I think that before criticizing other countries policy toward foreign people, you guys should question your own!

Not to mention just look at how many illegal foreigners are wandering around all over the place in Japan. Its obvious that Japan just likes to do things for show, and never cracks down on something unless it directly affects someone in power.

A good example is the Chinese folk in Akiba selling the pirated software in the middle of the 4 way back street that has been there for quite some time now. The people from Africa who are working as "greeters" for roppongi clubs, since I do recall you cant put that you work at a "club" as a legit job for a work visa. Although you can "lie" about it, and mark down as working in the "service" industry or as an "entertainer".

Lots of other examples floating around if you just keep your eyes open.

Japan is just too lazy to do anything about it until it becomes a real eyesore.

Im fine for people from other countries doing stuff in a legit manner in Japan, but when I see all the problem causers here just going about their daily biz and not getting into any sort of trouble while we "normal" folk get hassled I start to get pissed off.

And I can't say it's absolutely true that you have to have committed a crime in order for a US citizen to be fingerprinted. I had to do it in order to go to school, although admittedly that was medical school, and was required because we would be working in VA hospitals. But still, we were all lined up and printed/nifty laser scanned. I don't mind all that much, (Accountability for doctors? Not a bad idea.) but it was still a requirement.

@icelight: I work in the securities industry and I had to get fingerprinted as well. Big deal.

US immigration is very bad. VERY bad. Even if you're a white European (from Sweden for instance), there are anecdotal horror stories. Thus it's not even a purely race-based thing. This is not very conducive to achieving positive political ends or even just friendly relations between nationals. Are we trying to scare off tourists? Are we that scared of "outsiders" ourselves?

It's sad to see Japan following a similar path.

Protecting itself, or good ol fashioned Japanese Xenophobia? You make the call!