Japan Fingerprinting Commences
Japan’s new amended immigration laws (改正入管法) kicked in today, making it the second country in the world after USA to implement a compulsory fingerprinting system for foreign visitors.
Image shamelessly stolen from Stippy.com
This is a particularly unpleasant development in my opinion, not because I am a strong advocate of individual privacy (I am not), but because it really brings out the uglier, nationalistic, racist and ignorant side of Japan.
As of today, all foreigners entering Japan above the age of 16 have to have their fingerprints and photos taken or face immediate deportation. The interesting thing is that fingerprinting a Japanese citizen is specifically prohibited by law unless the individual is suspected of having committed a crime.
Supposedly this is done to fight terrorism, but can you really think of any instance of a terrorist attack in Japan that was executed by foreigners? The high profile sarin gas attack was perpetuated by the Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese cult. Japan’s infamously closed society already makes it next to impossible for any Islamic fundamentalist groups to operate there with any success, so this new measure is clearly an overkill in fighting terrorism.
Apparently, the fact that a high-ranking Japanese official claims to have friends in al-Qaeda who managed to enter Japan with various passports is enough justification for tighter immigration measures. This would have been just a really terrible joke if it were not actually true.
The reality is that all this talk about terrorism is just for the foreign media. The real reason for this measure is because foreigners are perceived as the cause of crimes and social problems in Japan. This racist attitude is so pervasive in right-leaning media outlets that it legitimizes itself and influences the thinking of people in a way that is not immediately apparent and very, very sinister. For example, magazines supposedly detailing the criminal acts of foreigners can find shelf space in regular convenient stores.
Hive of Villainy
One look at Itai News’ article on the latest fingerprinting scheme gives you a glimpse into the mindset of xenophobic Japanese who have probably never interacted with a foreigner in their lives. Most of the comments are along the lines of:
- Japan needs to maintain its good public safety records
- Most crimes are committed by foreigners
- Only criminals would complain about being fingerprinted
- America is doing it too
Itai News does coverage on the latest hot topics on 2ch, so you can say that it’s not that reflective of mainstream Japan. But still, it’s mind-boggling just how ignorant some people can get when they refuse to see beyond their immediate surroundings.
Discrimination
In Japan, foreigners can be stopped for questioning for the “crime” of riding a bike. Bicycle theft is a very common offence and foreigners are likely to be criminals, right? Police officers are also known to randomly stop foreigners to ask for identification and detaining people who do not have the proper papers with them. How do they tell that you are a foreigner? By looks of course! Permanent residents, naturalized citizens and Japan-born citizens with foreign parents are thus screwed both ways. Not only do they pay taxes, they still get treated as foreigners. Of course, there are the ever-infamous no pets no gaijin signs.
Once again, it seems that my post has become too tangential. Let’s go back to fingerprinting.
Fingerprinting can be good
As mentioned, I am not a huge fan of over-emphasizing on individual freedoms. I think that a nationwide fingerprint database can probably do wonders for crime-fighting, provided that the right instruments are put in place and they are properly scrutinized for potential abuse. For example, I won’t advocate such an implementation in a country suffering from rampant institutional corruption because it would just be another tool for mid-level bureaucrats to profit off.
But I think that if proper procedures are followed, there is really no harm in a central fingerprint database. It would certainly help solve a lot of serious crimes where fingerprints actually come into play. (I doubt that they get any prints to work with in the case of a bicycle theft.)
What I do have problem with is the current implementation. Why is the fingerprinting of Japanese citizens restricted by law? Clearly the existence of such a law implies that there is something unpleasant about being fingerprinted. And yet we have a bunch of racist Japanese net commentators saying “only criminals are afraid of getting fingerprinted”. Well, if that is true why not fingerprint everyone then? This is just pure discrimination, nothing more and nothing less.
We didn’t start this!
And the argument that the USA is already doing it is even more laughable. Firstly, it implies that foreigners “deserve” it for starting this whole thing. Well, newsflash! Not all foreigners are American! Moreover, I don’t think the US is that great an example to follow right now.
According to Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek, the number of Japanese tourists travelling to the US each year dropped from 5 million in 2000 to 3.6 million in 2006 and the number of Britons travelling to the US decreased by 11% but increased everywhere else.
Declines in the number of tourists since 9/11 cost the US $100 billion in spendings and taxes. Overall, global travel is experiencing continuous healthy growth, except to the US. Why? I think the possibility of being anal probed at the customs may have something to do with it!
Clearly, today’s United States of America is a shitty example to follow as far as immigration policy is concerned. I don’t think Americans are any safer today than before 9/11, just a whole lot less free (and less rich thanks to the spiralling dollar). If al-Qaeda really hated freedom (and not years of being screwed over by America’s asinine foreign policies), then they have really succeeded in a big way. But I digress again.
To conclude…
I guess that in the end, getting fingerprinted isn’t that big of a deal. But what is disgusting is how discriminating against foreigners is taken as a given by so many Japanese, and how valid concerns like security are used to manipulate public opinions for such an insidious agenda. It’s the vile combination of ignorance and protectionism that paved the way to Star of David badges more than sixty years ago.
Fingerprint everyone or fingerprint no one!
Ultimately, I just hope that I don’t have to wait for an hour to enter Japan when I fly there next month. (More details about that at a later date.)
November 21st, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Ryuko_Hikaru: There is a bunch of us going actually. Have you already booked your flight? If not, it might be too late.
ipridian: This has nothing to do with visas though. I don’t even need a visa to enter Japan.
November 21st, 2007 at 6:52 pm
De-lurking because, well just because.
The bicycle issue is one of the small but extremely significant examples of how deeply rooted these attitudes towards foreigners are. My friend, who was on an exchange trip to Japan, was actually pull-over by the police twice while riding his host family’s bicycle, and even got hauled over to the police station once. Ironically, the bicycle that he was riding was actually stolen (but donated to the host family, so he obviously had no clue). The thing that got to me was how he was nearly made to sign a confession-of-theft despite his host mother’s explanations simply because he was a foreigner and well, foreigners + stolen bicycle = the Japanese police are going to hunt you down.
Anyways, have fun in Japan DarkMirage and I’m looking forward to lots of phots! :D
By the way, how did the EJU go?
November 21st, 2007 at 6:55 pm
*photos. =A=;;
@Ryuko_Hikaru: As for how much you’ll need… How long are you planning to go, are you just going to Tokyo, and what sort of trip are you planning to take - e.g. predominantly sightseeing, total otaku-shopping trip… etcetc? Otherwise, how much you’ll need will just equate to “a lot of money”. I just took a trip in April after my As were over, so maybe I’ll be able to give you some advice or tips?
November 21st, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Ryuko_Hikaru:
I agree with all that you have typed, except this Alexander was NOT a racist. He fostered Greek-Persian ties, yes he razed Persepolis, but that was more of a political-religious thing, to reduce the power of the Zoroastrians. He took Asian (Persian, Bactrian) wives and encouraged his men to marry Asians too.
Of course the Greeks after him all called him a Hellene but in his father’s time the Macedonians were still regarded as barbarians and I daresay he faced more than a bit of racism in his youth from the Greeks (rebellions after Philip’s death). What he did was to give a common lingua franca and system of government to the ancient Middle and Near East. (Granted, Aramaic was sort of an in-between language in the Achaemenid Empire but it was used more for administrative purposes in writing; the common people still spoke various Iranian languages)
He never did promote Greek hegemony over the Ancient world. In fact, more important scientific advances took place in Alexandria and other parts of Asia Minor than in Greece herself, as a result of increased trade and development after his campaigns. (E.g. the Chandragupta empire which developed shortly after his death) Greece was fairly backward 200 years after him (Sparta was a tourist attraction, Athens was where rich Romans went to study), while Alexandria was one of the most prosperous cities of the time.
Alexander conquered for power and glory, plain and simple, and he just as well admitted it. He certainly did not act out of any “racist impulse”.
November 21st, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Soshi:
I was going to ask how you managed to go off on April after your A levels, then I realized you were a girl.
November 21st, 2007 at 9:59 pm
@ DM
Nope I haven’t book my flight. I haven’t been out of this country for a long time. Damn.
Maybe next time. I have got till April before my NS intake. xD
@ Quen
I didn’t know that. Thanks for correcting me……most of the sources I have read from said that he was Aristole’s student and his teacher told him that the Greeks are the greatest in the world. I guess that is looking from another POV.
@ Soshi
Most likely otaku shopping. I am not really an otaku, maybe a hikikkomori. Most likely I will be there to buy BeForU stuff and a IIDX controller, maybe some weird Yuki figurines. I won’t consider staying for more than 3 days, unless there is a need for me to hunt around for Kamen Rider NEXT’s DVD. Right now I am going to spend the remainder of my savings at SITEX on pointless stuff. >_<
Back again to the topic, I don’t think the airport security aren’t going to have alot of trouble, but being so stiff, I think they are going to shoot anyone holding a styrofoam beam rifle at the next anime convention.
Btw I predict DM is going to return with lots of Haruhi stuff. Anyway when is the 10th book out for the light novels?
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:20 am
The word of the day is “insular”. Everyone repeat after me, “insular”. Racism is not the issue here, it’s not just discrimination based on race. It’s clearly more of Xenophobia that gets in Japanese policymakers. But lets not forget that this is certainly not a recent phenomena, and neither is it’s following’s anal practices. Historically, Human Rights were not an issue in the execution of Japanese Policies. Japan’s unit 731 massacred swarms of foreigners. The idea of ethnic superiority works especially well, and is amplified by the fact that the country has a nearly pure ethnic population (>99% Japanese). Ignorance breeds stupidity. One, however, wonders who the real Native Japanese are when Indigenous Ainu and other minorities are discriminated against in modern times.
This reminds me of the story of the Demons and Dogs. Japanese paint the easy target of foreigners(Demons) as the cause of problems, when it is actually their own social cracks(Dogs) that create trouble.
In a sense, the policies flesh out what academics have been saying for years. Japan, insular, biting it’s own ass, being anal, etc.
I leave for Japan on Sunday, and I am reminded why I hate the large part of Japanese culture(the exception being otaku culture)
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Kiasu CrossoverNovember 22nd, 2007 at 5:25 am
[...] they (a bit) overreacting about terrorism? - that’s what I thought. Before reading his blog entry and some news, I never really had any bad comments about anything Japanese (or at [...]
November 22nd, 2007 at 8:18 am
Just wanted to say that racism towards foreign immigration isn’t only something Japanese and US.
Well, only that the Japanese got it done on a much higher scale (to every foreigner) instead.
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:28 pm
@ DM
Actually, travelling to Japan is fine. You will only see the uglier side of it when you live and work there.
I’m wondering what if your parents were from some Asian country like China, Korea, or Taiwan and your parents speak near fluent Japanese and you could speak near fluent as well. Would you still be treated differently?
Do the Japanese got some special power to distinguish any Asian that isn’t Japanese?
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:37 pm
before you know it, the sakoku mentality might just come back again. but then again, nagasaki is somewhat unlike the other japanese prefectures because all the housing advertisments i saw never had that “no gaijin” sign. gaijins are, not say aplenty here, but its common to see one or two a day.
@exalt dragon
consider pre-modern japanese culture and history. those post meiji restoration mentality/culture/history are pure shit i say.
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:39 pm
@Night
somehow gaijins see all yellow-skinned Asians as the same, but Japanese can always sniff out non-Japanese Asians even if you speak near perfect or perfect Japanese. Strange.
n i agree with u saying one will only see the uglier side of Japan when one stays or works there. can’t agree more though i think certain aspects of Singapore is uglier.
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:56 am
@|c3^sNoW :
I think they both(pre-meiji and modern) can be used to explain the current stance. It’s just a matter of the examples I picked. XD
November 23rd, 2007 at 11:26 pm
For your info, I just got back from Bangkok a few weeks back and they took my photo at the immigration point. So I don’t think it’s that big of a deal for countries to require foreigners to have their photos/fingerprints taken.
And if you want to scream about discrimination, when I was visiting certain temples in Thailand they have certain entrances for THAIs ONLY (Tourists have to enter by an entrance further away) and to add on to that they even have different shoe racks for foreigners when you enter the temple. How come nobody seems to be complaining at this?
To me, basically, it’s their country, thus you live by their rules. It’s like going to the US and complaining that people there don’t wanna learn to speak your language.
November 25th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
＠p7m13
That’s precisely what Spanish-speaking immigrants are doing in the USA. The older generation show little initiative to learn English and expect government services to be offered in Spanish for them. Spanish-speaking schools run in neighbourhoods, where the kids are exposed to little to no English. In fact, more people now speak Spanish in Los Angeles than in Barcelona.
I personally don’t think this is a good thing; on the other hand, the xenophobic attitudes to immigrant shown by racists the world over is no good alternative, neither is the preferential treatment of foreigners as exemplified by Singapore. But for now at least, I believe Singaporeans’ attitudes to foreigners are among the best in the world.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
lol.. so, any Japanese-wannabes wanna go migrate to Japan now?
November 27th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Well, you may not care about people invading your privacy, but what about people who do? I canceled my trip to Japan when I heard about this. I was planning to visit with my wife so we could enjoy a lovely country, with a wonderful people and language. But we didn’t want to be subjected to a degrading invasion of privacy that has no real warrant (as if foreign terrorists are going to invade Japan, and as if fingerprinting everyone would ever stop that).
November 28th, 2007 at 12:53 am
Its just Fucking Racism, thats it really,.. its outrageous
November 29th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
i guess when you’re visiting their country you go by their rules, nothing else to it. with that said, I’m going to visit Japan this summer with a few friends.
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Signed the petition, wrote a blog, now are looking for a way to ‘voice’ your displeasure?
Informing as many people about the issue is a good start, with enough ‘voice’ we can get this reppealed or at the very least ammended.
Copy the ‘tract’ on the reentry japan blog, copy and send a form letter (from debito.org) to a politician or tourist bureau and…
WEAR A “YOKOSO JAPAN 11/20 COMMEMORATIVE TEE” protest t-shirt everywhere you go, especially when passing through customs and immigration! Find the shirts available at:
http://samuraicanuck.tripod.com
or email: yokoso_tee@joka.powweb.com