Lim Young-Ki, a representative of the Korean Youth Association in Japan, pointed out how ethnic Koreans had fought for decades until the 2000 abolition of fingerprinting on Alien Registration Certificates only to see the process revived through the back door now.

It’ll never happen, but can you imagine how silly Japan would look if the US abolished its own US-VISIT program? There would be public outrage! The only reason this has been given the go ahead is because it’s being done in the States, and that’s supposed to make it okay.

How many of us non-Japanese can actually vote? Our displeasure means jack all to those in power right now.

That said, if a bunch of natives stood up and said “We’re tired of having a racist government”, then it might get some attention.

Either way, I’m okay with it for now. Ask me again if I have trouble re-entering the country, though

If you don’t know Debito, I highly recommend you take a look through his site, and you might be particulalrly interested in reading his post “Yomiuri & Nikkei trumpet 5 NJ snagged by Fingerprinting system. Sankei says FP system not snagger” in which he says the 5 people “snagged” on the first day of fingerprinting, weren’t actually caught by the fingerprinting machine itself, but by traditional means.

Love your last paragraph. You are so right.

To be completely honest, I’m surprised that anything gets done in a nation that has only 3 competent elected leaders and 180+ dolts who embezzle, take bribes, bitch, moan or otherwise waste our time and tax money. I used to think that Canadian politicians were a pretty sorry bunch, but Japan has upped the ante

All that said, you’re right that fingerprinting will do nothing to prevent people from illegally entering this country. Instead, it’ll just turn away the ones that had been previously deported and have now returned with a new or fake passport. Fingerprinting will, however, catch the few criminals that try to get into the country through regular means of passage.

Since Tuesday, the system has already caught 1 person known to have ties to Al Queda, three people previously deported and barred from re-entry, and two people on Interpol’s wanted list.

This will do nothing to stop someone who entered legally from staying past their visa and disappearing in the crowds, nor will this stop people who pay to get in through the yakuza, but it’s a great PR opportunity for the country and if they can stop even a handful of people (which they already have), then they’ll claim it a complete success.

It’s unfortunate that this country is full of idiot leaders that have no concept of tact or proper phrasing. One would think that with a language as eloquent as Japanese, the leaders would have tacit canned responses for almost every controversial law passed. Sadly, they’re too busy accepting gifts from corporate sponsors to learn effective language skills.