Interestingly, fingerprinting carries a strong stigma in Japan, because it is associated with criminals. Japan previously fingerprinted foreign residents, but that system was abolished in 1999, following civil rights campaigns involving Japan’s large Korean and Chinese communities, who felt that it was an official expression of mistrust of things foreign — a way for suspicious police to keep track of aliens. The earlier practice of making every foreigner who intended to stay in Japan for a certain period visit the ward office of the area for registration and fingerprinting was abandoned following a public outcry. In particular, it was perceived by the ethnic Koreans and Chinese as unnecessary humiliation which could alienate people born, raised and fully assimilated in Japan. Ethnic children often did not know that they were ‘foreigners’ until officials called them from their classrooms to ink their fingers. It was also seen as associating anyone who was not Japanese with criminal activity, since by law no Japanese can be fingerprinted unless “officially charged” with a crime. So people started resisting it, the first among them being an ethnic Korean in 1980.

This writer had a humiliating experience during his first visit to Japan in 1979 as a visiting scholar at Hitotsubashi University. He was made to get registered and fingerprinted. He was also required to carry the Alien Registration Certificate issued to him, until it was surrendered to immigration officials at the time of departure.

The revival of this practice is going to open old wounds and damage Japan’s new Asian identity. In July 2005, a UN special rapporteur, after visiting Japan to assess the factors of discrimination that affected minority groups, recommended that Japan should “avoid the adoption of any measure that would discriminate against foreigners”. Regrettably, the government has now introduced one that contradicts this approach.

... contd.