In one of the most culturally offensive measures bordering on racism, Japan last month revised its immigration law under the garb of keeping terrorists out, and began fingerprinting foreigners. Understandably, this drew criticism from rights groups and foreign residents. The US is the only other country with a biometric immigration process.

The revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, which cleared the Diet in May 2006, requires all non-Japanese aged over 16 entering Japan, including permanent residents, to provide their biometric data, which is then checked against a ‘no-entry’ list. Only ‘special permanent residents’, including ethnic Koreans, and those arriving on diplomatic duties , are exempt.

The introduction of the new immigration law has understandably been met with howls of protest from foreign residents and the foreign media, who have pointed out that the only terrorist attacks on Japanese soil have been those carried out by Japanese. Although the Immigration Bureau has only revealed that collected data will be “kept for an extended time” and access will be limited to a minimum number of personnel, the Japan Federation of Bar Association and human rights groups allege the system opens the door for misuse. Makoto Teranaka, secretary-general of the human rights group Amnesty International Japan, condemned the new law and said the introduction of the system is a violation of basic human rights.

Tokyo’s support of the US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and dispatch of forces to each region has raised concerns that Japan could become a target of terror attack. It is this fear that seems to be the driving force behind the latest move. Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama attempted to justify the law by saying a “friend of a friend” of his was an Al-Qaeda operative who had entered Japan a number of times, using fake passports. Hatoyama was actually referring to a man who was involved in a bomb attack on Bali.

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