New rule

A new law forcing that every foreign tourist to Japan except only children under 16, diplomats and special statues is fingerprinted and photographed has been operated from November 20.


Japanese immigration think this will prevent from international terrorist activities.


However, there are lots of people who feel this is offended. For example, Kevin Rafferty who wrote this article says this is a discrimination against foreigners. He insists the terrorist are not only from abroad, such as Aum Shinrikyou and in addition, finger prints and photographs are mainly used for identification, not for finding blacklisted people.


Other foreigners also say this is invasion of privacy or the terrorist lists are full of mistakes.


Although, there are some positive foreigners who think the new rule prevents the re-entry to Japan of deported and other aliens banned from entry and by using the tool for identification, we can learn biometric system world widely.