Visitors to Japan will soon have to have their fingerprints and photograph taken
when entering the country. All foreign nationals will be subjected to the
security measures from November 23 this year.
At present only the US requires visitors to scan their fingerprints when entering the country, a move designed to tighten security following the 9/11 attacks. The Japanese embassy says it is following suit in order to "identify persons considered to pose security risks, such as terrorists, and persons travelling with passports that are not their own."
All foreign nationals over the age of 16 (with the exception of certain permanent residents and those performing diplomatic or official duties) will be asked to place the index fingers of both hands on a digital fingerprint reader, before having their photograph taken. Anyone refusing to submit to the new regulations will be refused entry.
In the US the two-finger scan takes around ten seconds per traveller, which might not seem like much but soon mounts up when there is a queue of people waiting to pass through immigration. The US government is due to change to a ten-finger scan from March next year (see online news March 14), which will increase the process to around 13 seconds, but according to the US embassy will eliminate inconsistencies and false readings.
For more information visit uk.emb-japan.go.jp.
Report by Mark
Caswell
