Japan to fingerprint and photograph foreign visitors

JAPAN: Japan's parliament narrowly approved Wednesday a bill to follow the United States in fingerprinting and photographing foreign visitors, despite concern the security measures violated privacy.

The upper house voted 131 to 94 to support the bill, which would also allow the justice minister to expel terrorist suspects.

The lower house, where Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's coalition enjoys a wider majority, approved the bill in March.

Under the bill, which will go into effect by November 2007, all foreigners aged 16 or older will be photographed and electronically fingerprinted when they enter Japan.

Permanent residents, including ethnic Koreans born in Japan, will be exempt from the law, along with state guests and diplomats.

The information will be stored in a database for potential criminal investigations.

Koizumi's government says the law will help prevent terrorism and other crime in Japan, one of the United States' closest allies.

But the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan had called for more time to consider the fingerprinting proposals.

"This requires careful consideration so as to ensure privacy," it said in a statement.

"The international community has not necessarily reached a consensus as the US is the only country which has introduced such a measure," it said.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations also expressed concern that the provision "would violate foreigners' privacy."

The new law "could generate a prejudice that foreigners pose a threat," the federation said in a statement Monday.

The Korean Residents Union, which represents Koreans born in Japan who are loyal to Seoul, strongly opposed the bill, even though its members would not be subject to the law.

"It promotes the view that all foreigners are criminals, which would hugely affect Koreans born in Japan," it said in a statement.

In the United States, the number of tourist arrivals plummetted in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and subsequent measures to tighten security.

The Japan Association of Travel Agents said it was unclear what affect the fingerprinting would have on tourism to Japan, as visitors also wanted to feel safe.

Japan has launched a campaign to become more tourist-friendly and last year hosted a record 6.73 million foreign visitors, up 9.6 percent from 2004.

"We would like to cooperate to make foreign visitors feel more safe and comfortable," said Shiro Aoki, a spokesman for the travel agent association.

Japan was alarmed after allegations that French Muslim militant Lionel Dumont entered on a forged passport and raised money for extremists. Dumont was arrested in Germany in December 2003.

Japan hosts more than 40,000 US soldiers, who are exempt from the new rules. It has repeatedly been threatened in Al-Qaeda statements over its deployment of troops on a humanitarian mission to Iraq.

Japan, which has a very low crime rate, does not require visas from nationals of most developed countries, although it imposes strict restrictions on immigration.

AFP.