A reminder that Japanese Customs and Immigration have started fingerprinting and photographing incoming foreigners as part of new measures said to combat terrorism. Details will be sent to a database of terrorist watch lists and criminal records, and if found positive the incoming passenger will be refused entry.

Critics of the new measures say that it violates human rights and privacy, imposes delays and costs on business.

The US is the only other country that has in place identical measures for incoming passengers.

I've been reading reports on Japanese newssites on the first day of this new immigration procedure. While it went fairly smoothly, there were some technical hiccups, in one case two passengers being allowed in without fingerprinting and photographing. There were some complaints about delay, even though there were more immigration staff on duty. One Frenchman, because he was so tall, couldn't have his photo taken at the immigration booth and had to do it in a separate room, and a couple of passengers couldn't have their fingerprints scanned because they were worn out through years of agricultural labour!

"a couple of passengers couldn't have their fingerprints scanned because they were worn out through years of agricultural labour!" It's not just agricultural labor that can do that. When I had my fingerprints taken by the US immigration service during my naturalization process, the guy doing it had great trouble getting prints he was happy with. All those years typing away as a software engineer apparently wore them down!

Is this a new rule? We were in Japan last month, flying into NRT on October 20th and never had our fingerprints or mug shots taken. Of course after a 14 hour flight maybe I was mistaken, as the airport became somewhat of a blur to me...

Tracy

Starts today 11/20

See here for info

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2221.html

Aloha!

Glad I avoided that...I can only imagine how much longer the lines are going to be now!!!

Tracy

Bonjour,

I arrived yesterday through Osaka-kansai (KIX) around 9 AM. The plane was full of Japanese so the foreigner@s lines were short and I was out in less thab 15 ninutes. Fingerprinting and picture take 30 seconds, and you get a nice musical sound when they re done. I was asked the same questions as usual (reasons of stay, place I would be staying after Kyoto), but my passport was scrutinized more seriously than before (French passports are notoriously badly printed, it s also a problem when I go to the USA). Bag inspection was cut short when they found some of my kendo equipment and the bottles of wine were correctly assigned as a gift to my teacher ...