Japan to fingerprint and photo all foreigners
As of 20 November, all foreigners entering Japan will be fingerprinted and their photographs taken and stored. Resident foreigners will also be subject to the new requirement
Japan will begin to fingerprint and photograph foreigners entering the country from next month as part of a sweeping antiterrorism policy which criticized by foreign residents and human rights activists. Anyone considered to be a terrorist -- or refusing to cooperate -- will be denied entry and deported. "This will greatly contribute to preventing international terrorist activities on our soil," Immigration Bureau official Naoto Nikai said in a briefing on the system, which starts on 20 November.
The checks are similar to the U.S. Visit system introduced in the United States after the 9/11 attacks. Unlike the United States, though, Japan will require resident foreigners as well as visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed every time they re-enter the country. "It certainly doesn't make people who've been here for 30 or 40 years feel like they're even human beings basically," said businessman Terrie Lloyd, who has dual Australian and New Zealand citizenship and has been based in Japan for twenty-four years. "There has not been a single incident of foreign terrorism in Japan, and there have been plenty of Japanese terrorists," he said. There are more than two million foreigners registered as resident in Japan, of whom 40 percent are classed as permanent residents.
