So it seems I can never enter Japan again, which is a shame. I wanted to visit Fuji-San and see the cranes in Hokkaido but that can never happen now. Japan is going to fingerprint and photograph foreigners entering the country in a veilled attempt at anti-terrorism. I say veiled because it is obviously part of a greater consipracy to further deprive people of their rights.
If you think I might be exaggerating or down-right crazy let me point out a few things. First off there has never been a terrorist attack in Japan by a foreigner. The only terrorism has been by Japanese citizens themselves such as the guy that set off the serin attack in the subway.
Secondly, getting finger-printed and having a mug-shot taken is what happens to people after they have been charged with committing a crime. Not as a preventive measure. The guys involved in 9/11, the whole spark to this errosion of personal rights, entered the US legally. None of them had a criminal record prior to the attacks and therefore these “preventitive” measures would not have stopped them anyway.
The pictures and fingerprints obtained by immigration officials will be made available to police and may be shared with foreign immigration authorities and governments.
So what that means is because your government cannot finger print you without cause, Japan could do it when you visit and then share that information back.
I suspect what will happen is that governments everywhere will being finger-printing foreigners, and after the populace is used to that idea they will begin fingerprinting citizens. Of course some people may object but it will be too late, most people will already have been printed and soon without that bio-metric information you will not be able to do anything.
Think I am crazy?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1466943.ece
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2004/11/65856
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spying/32832prs20071116.html
Enjoy the brave new world.