Hello everyone,
This is my first posting to this listserve. I am Midori, a graduate student
of Queen's University, in Ontario, Canada. I appreciate that Eric Toepfer
posted the article on the new biometric immigration control in Japan,
scheduled to start in November 24th. My friends in Japan had a public
meeting against this system last week, and I forward their appeal here. As
far as I know, there have been two events protesting the system,
exceptionally to the quiet mass population in Japan. This meeting was held
in Tokyo, and another was in Fukuoka, where many Koreans live, who refused
being fingerprinted in the previous system and led it to the abolition in
2000. I have their appeal, too, but it is not translated into English.
Please let me know if any of you want to read it. Thank you.
Midori Ogasawara
[log in to unmask]
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
http://www.amnesty.or.jp/modules/news/article.php?storyid=394&sel_lang=english
STOP THE "JAPAN VERSION OF THE US-VISIT PROGRAM" APPEAL FOR THE OCTOBER 27,
2007 SYMPOSIUM
on 2007/10/30 12:13:04 (206 reads)
Sponsored by Amnesty International Japan and Solidarity for Migrants Japan
(SMJ)
The introduction of the Japan version of the US-VISIT Program, where almost
all non-Japanese residents and re-entrants will have their fingerprints,
face photographs, and personal details taken and recorded upon (re-)entry,
is imminent.
Although this system, which was approved by the 2006 regular session of the
Japanese Diet (Parliament) mainly as a means of combating terrorism, has not
in our opinion been properly deliberated and considered by our policymakers.
For example:
1) Is it acceptable for these measures to be adopted without clear
legislation regarding the collection, processing, use, and disposal of
fingerprints, which is highly personal and biotic data?
2) Is it acceptable to entrust this kind of data, which as fingerprints and
photos are of a highly personal and distinguishing nature, to all
governmental bodies in this manner?
3) Is the technology behind biometric data collection really all that
reliable?
4) Can we truly say that the definition and classification of "terrorist"
has been clearly defined by law?
5) Have proper restrictions been put in place so that this information is
not given to other governments?
These questions were neither adequately addressed nor answered when this
program was passed by our legislators. Further, based upon our legislators'
answers and misunderstandings about these measures, it is clear that this
program has been adopted without an adequate degree of preparation. Even
though a year has passed since this program was approved, the above concerns
remain unaddressed.
For these reasons we make this public appeal. We oppose this "Japanese
version of the US-VISIT Program", and add the following reasons:
The basis for requiring non-Japanese to give biometric data when entering
Japan is the presupposition that "foreigners are terrorists". This is
discrimination towards non-Japanese people. With the exception of the
Special Permanent Residents etc., taking fingerprints, photos, and other
biometric data from almost all non-Japanese is an excessive and overreaching
policy. In light of Japan's history of using fingerprinting as a means to
control and track non-Japanese residents, one must not forget that thus
equating non-Japanese with criminals is a great insult and indignity.
It has also become clear in Diet deliberations that this biometric data will
not only be utilized for "anti-terrorism", but also in regular criminal
investigations. This use is of sensitive biotic data is clearly beyond the
bounds of the original goal of these measures, something we cannot allow our
government to do.
Further, there an assumption that this data will be kept on file for at most
80 years, which means it will amount to millions of people being recorded.
It goes without saying that keeping this much sensitive data (given that
biometric data is the ultimate in personal information) for this long is
highly dangerous.
Add the fact that the very definition of "terrorist" is vague, and that it
is being applied not merely to people who "undertake action with the goal of
threatening the public". People who are "probable agents" of terrorism, or
"can easily become probable agents" of terrorism, or who are even
"acknowledged by the authorities as having sufficient grounds for becoming
agents" of terrorism, are also included. This is completely unclear, and
creates fears that Immigration officials will deliberately use this as a
means to expand their powers.
Meanwhile, it is nowhere acknowledged that the US-VISIT Program is in any
way an effective means of PREVENTING terrorism. In fact, the very model for
this system, the United States, has been advised by its Government
Accountability Office that the US-VISIT Program has some serious weaknesses.
In other words, the US-VISIT Program, nominally introduced for
anti-terrorism purposes, has not been clearly adjudged as fulfilling such
purposes adequately. In fact, introducing said system has created clear and
present human rights abuses. Even if such system was proposed for the
express purposes of "anti-terrorism", any country duty-bound to hold human
rights in high regard has no mandate to do this. This point has been
stressed several times by the United Nations, and in other international
organizations debating anti-terror. It is hard to deny the danger that this
means to control foreigners, under the guise of "anti-terror", will lead to
a deliberate disadvantaging of specific races, religions, and ethnic
groups--in other words, the embodiment of racial profiling and racial
discrimination.
This "Japan version of the US-VISIT Program" is thus laden with problems.
There is not enough reason for it to be introduced in this version at this
time. For this reason, we who have gathered at this symposium strongly
oppose this program and demand its cancellation.
October 27, 2007
”Toward further control over foreign nationals?
Japan's anti-terrorism policy and a Japanese version of the "US-VISIT"
program”
Symposium organized by
Amnesty International Japan and Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (SMJ)
Co-signed as Arudou Debito, Author, JAPANESE ONLY
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Toepfer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 7:43 PM
Subject: Japan to take fingerprints, photos of foreigners -
washingtonpost.com
> ... not that they are the first and only (German citiziens applying for
> passports will be fingerprinted after November 1) but strange to see how
> this trend is spreading globally.
>
> Eric
>
> +++
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR2007102600
> 100.html
>
> Japan to take fingerprints, photos of foreigners
>
> By Isabel Reynolds
> Reuters
> Friday, October 26, 2007; 1:04 AM
>
> TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is to fingerprint and photograph foreigners
> entering
> the country from next month in an anti-terrorism policy that is stirring
> anger among 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 November 20.
>
> The checks are similar to the "U.S. Visit" system introduced in the United
> States after the attacks on September 11, 2001.
>
> But Japan, unlike the United States, 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 24 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.
>
> CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS
>
> The pictures and fingerprints obtained by immigration officials will be
> made
> available to police and may be shared with foreign immigration authorities
> and governments.
>
> Diplomats and children under 16 are excluded from the new requirement, as
> are "special" permanent residents of Korean and Chinese origin, many of
> whom
> are descended from those brought to Japan as forced labor before and
> during
> World War Two.
>
> Local government fingerprinting of foreign residents when issuing
> registration cards, long a source of friction, was abolished in 2000.
>
> Amnesty International is calling for the immigration plan to be abandoned.
>
> "Making only foreigners provide this data is discriminatory," said Sonoko
> Kawakami of Amnesty's Japan office. "They are saying 'terrorist equals
> foreigner'. It's an exclusionary policy that could encourage xenophobia."
>
> The new system is being introduced as Japan campaigns to attract more
> tourists. More than 6.7 million foreign visitors came to Japan in 2006,
> government statistics show. Immigration officials say they are unsure how
> long tourists can expect to wait in line for the checks to be made.
>
> Britain is set to require non-European foreign nationals to register
> biometric details when applying for visas from next year.
>
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