Bizarre Justification For Fingerprinting Foreigners

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]Mainichi: Hatoyama justifies taking prints with 'friend of a friend' in al-Qaida claim
Japan's justice minister said Monday a "friend of a friend" who belonged to al-Qaida was able to sneak into the country with false passports and disguises, proving Tokyo needs to fingerprint and photograph arriving foreigners...Hatoyama...told reporters that he had personal knowledge of how terrorists can infiltrate the country, citing an unidentified "friend of a friend" who was involved in a bomb attack on the Indonesian island of Bali. "I have never met this person, but until two or three years ago, it seems this person was visiting Japan often. And each time he arrived in Japan, he used a different passport," Hatoyama said. The justice minister added that his friend, whom he also did not identify, had warned him to stay away from the center of Bali. Hatoyama did not specify which of two Bali bomb attacks -- in 2002 and 2005 -- he was referring to. Nor did he say whether the warning came before a bombing, or whether he alerted Indonesian officials...Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said he hoped Hatoyama's al-Qaida connection would not re-enter Japan. "I hope he'll deal with this issue firmly through immigration controls now that he's justice minister," Fukuda said...more...

Related FG threads here and here.

[amdg]

What a steaming turd.

Yeah, well a friend of a friend told me you were a lying sack of shit Mr. Hatoyama, which just goes to prove I'm justified in calling you a steaming turd, right?

Logic? Fuck logic, TIJ.

[Kuang_Grade]

A bigger question is why the justice minister is pals with a person who associates with members of al-Qaida...as well as why he would publically state this as well.

[Buraku]

More on that gaijin scapegoat crime theory from our beloved J-ministers, I wonder how much their salaries would slump if gaijins and zainichis stopped paying their taxes.


Question is

Will elitists like Bill Gates, the Clintons and GW be getting their mugshot when entering Japan ?

[Midwinter]

Fuck this just gets better and better. What I want to know is does this new law include someone like myself, who has been living in Japan for longer than 7 years on a permenent visa. Because there's no way in hell I'm going to let them fingerprint me... period.

[Mulboyne]

[bolt_krank]

And everyone knows that terrorists aren't suspected when they're wearing fake beards...

[oyajikun]

Waterboarding anyone?

[FG Lurker]

What I want to know is does this new law include someone like myself, who has been living in Japan for longer than 7 years on a permenent visa.

A whole 7 years eh? Yes, it includes you.

Because there's no way in hell I'm going to let them fingerprint me... period.

Then I suggest you don't leave Japan until this eventually blows over. It seems very clear at this point that anyone who refuses to be fingerprinted/photographed will be unconditionally refused entry or reentry.

[Midwinter]

A whole 7 years eh? Yes, it includes you.



Then I suggest you don't leave Japan until this eventually blows over. It seems very clear at this point that anyone who refuses to be fingerprinted/photographed will be unconditionally refused entry or reentry.

I seriously doubt they have the ability to prevent me from living with my wife and child. Legal or not, it won't take long for this law to get shot down.

[TennoChinko]

It's a bit ironic that of all the countries known to sponsor and harbor terrorists - that the zainichi citizens of North Korea are exempt from the fingerprinting requirements.


Kim Jong Il be thanking you for cooperation, Mr. Minister of Justice.

[Greji]

I seriously doubt they have the ability to prevent me from living with my wife and child. Legal or not, it won't take long for this law to get shot down.

The gal (hawaiian girl, don't recall her name) who took the original fingerprinting law to court many years ago, spent most of her time waiting for the court decision in Jail and when the court ruled with the government, they immediately took her to the airport for deportation.

So, I wouldn't make any bets. If the law doesn't get revised and actually goes in to the statutes, you know the reply! Oh, the Law is nasty and wrong, but Shoganai, you under arrest! If you got a wife and kids depending on you, you might want to consider letting someone else be the martyr.

While we are on this topic, the US does have the visitor line a bit more streamlined now for photos and finger scanning, but does anyone know if they scan prints for Green Card holders (PRs)?

[omae mona]

While we are on this topic, the US does have the visitor line a bit more streamlined now for photos and finger scanning, but does anyone know if they scan prints for Green Card holders (PRs)?

Yes. But note that green card holders can go through the U.S. citizen's line, which is much faster than the visitor line. Even the U.S. citizens' booths have the biometric equipment installed for just this purpose. In fact, most airports are lenient and seem to let families stay together in the U.S. citizens' line if anybody in the family is a U.S. citizen. The non-citizens have to get scanned, but at least it's fast.

[Captain Japan]

The FCCJ Web page says the press con was in Japanese with English interpretation so it would seem that language was not a problem for Hatoyama. My guess is that he realized that he was saying something really stupid and tried to get out of it by offering further explanation that only made the situation worse.

[omae mona]

Well, if anything proves the real terrorist threat is from Japanese citizens, this should do it. Imagne if the U.S. attorney general was hanging out with people 1 degree away from Al-Qaeda.

I'm going out and protesting in the street. There should be fingerprinting for all foreigners *and* anal probing for senior government officials.

[Spidey]

I'm going out and protesting in the street. There should be fingerprinting for all foreigners *and* anal probing for senior government officials.

I'll be the first in line with my latex glove ready to go. (No lubrication required!) Fucking assholes!! (Pun intended)

[amdg]

[American Oyaji]

I hope more news outlets from around the world pick this up and make this guy GOmenasai AWAY. And in the process kill the idiotic fingerprinting crap.

[FG Lurker]

I seriously doubt they have the ability to prevent me from living with my wife and child.

Correct. Your wife and child would be welcome to join you outside Japan after the jgov't denies you entry and ships you back where you came from. (Assuming you have funds to cover the ticket, otherwise I guess you'll end up in an immigration detention center eating bug-infested food and bits of plastic.)

I hate this bullshit more than most (see previous threads on this topic), but trying to protest it at the airport will simply result in denied entry. The immigration drones at the airport have no power to change the situation and are not likely to make any effort to do so.

Legal or not, it won't take long for this law to get shot down.

I would love for the law to get shot down. It will be hard to mount a challenge from outside Japan though so refusing to be printed (and then being denied entry) is not going to help anything.

[canman]

I understand your frustration, this new regulation will affect a lot of us old timers, but the attitude you are taking on the subject will do nothing to help you when you try to enter again. It will just make you look like an obnoxious gaijin who feel they deserve special treatment. And that is just not the case these days. Is it a stupid law, sure. Will it disrupt and inconvenience a lot of people, yes. Is there anything we can do about it, not really. And 7 years might seem like a long time, but when you've been here as long as Taro and GBoothe, then come and talk to me.

[Mulboyne]

...Later at the Justice Ministry, Hatoyama said, "It was my friend who was given the advanced warning of the bombing and it was about three or four months after the incident that I heard the story from my friend." Hatoyama also issued a statement the same day denying any connection with members of al-Qaida. In the statement, Hatoyama said that there are a large number of people who share his interest in butterflies including people overseas and he has been told that some of them were thought to be members of terrorist organizations and have entered Japan or were involved in the Bali bombing. "I introduced these anecdotes as something I heard from my friend," he explained. The Bali attacks in October 2002 killed 202 people, mainly foreign tourists. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda dismissed criticism that Hatoyama's remarks were careless, saying that if there is a possibility that such a suspicious person could enter the country, "I would like him to deal firmly with immigration control and other issues as justice minister"...

From Kyodo

[amdg]

From Kyodo

I knew it from the outset - he's a fucking liar.

First story...
I have "personal knowledge of how terrorists can infiltrate the country, citing an unidentified "friend of a friend" who was involved in a bomb attack on the Indonesian island of Bali. "I have never met this person, but until two or three years ago, it seems this person was visiting Japan often. And each time he arrived in Japan, he used a different passport," Hatoyama said. The justice minister added that his friend, whom he also did not identify, had warned him to stay away from the center of Bali.

Second story....
Later at the Justice Ministry, Hatoyama said, "It was my friend who was given the advanced warning of the bombing and it was about three or four months after the incident that I heard the story from my friend." Hatoyama also issued a statement the same day denying any connection with members of al-Qaida. In the statement, Hatoyama said that there are a large number of people who share his interest in butterflies including people overseas and he has been told that some of them were thought to be members of terrorist organizations and have entered Japan or were involved in the Bali bombing. "I introduced these anecdotes as something I heard from my friend,"

[james]

I seriously doubt they have the ability to prevent me from living with my wife and child. Legal or not, it won't take long for this law to get shot down.

full of piss and vinegar, aren't you? just because you have permanent residence doesn't mean it can't be revoked. just because you have a japanese wife and kids doesn't mean they can't and wouldn't ship your ass back to wherever it is in the great land of gaikoku that you come from. sure, your wife and kids could join you there and in that respect they "can't separate you".

is it a stupid law? yes.
do you have a right to be frustrated? of course.

would i personally make a scene at the airport? likely no more than a small show of annoyance to put a human face to the absurdity of what they're doing.

[Takechanpoo]

I think Hatoyama just wanted to behave like evil by pretending friend of terrolist.
Kind of "I have a friend of YKZ's oyabun!!!! Heheheeee!" etc.
Originally this fingerprinting for gaijin results from 9.11 Yudea-WASP's put-up job and is order from Uncle Sam.
By the way, I am sure Midwinter deserves being fingerprinted and photographed.
This dude is a potential terrolist. I really think so.

[Adhesive]

This is awesome. This should be made into a sitcom. Hatoyama would be the straight-laced politician trying to get out of his grandfather's shadow, but he has this zany friend who's always getting him into trouble.

[Captain Japan]

In watching the news at lunch it would seem that this story isn't receiving coverage. Instead, the channel my bento-ya-san-by-day-snack-by-night had on was talking non-stop about golf:

Ex-top Defense Ministry bureaucrat admits shady golf outings with contractor
Mainichi

A scandal-hit former top bureaucrat with the Defense Ministry admitted in his Diet testimony on Monday that he played golf with an executive of a major defense contractor more than 200 times over the past 12 years.

"I think I played golf with a former senior managing director of Yamada Corp. on more than 200 occasions," former Administrative Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya said. However, he denied he did Yamada Corp any favors in return....[url=http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071029p2a00m0na047000c.html]more[url]...

Lots grim faces and a lot of utterings of "so desune" from the casters as they cycled through the diet testimony some three times.

I suspect that ambassador Schieffer will be making an official inquiry into this Hatoyama matter very shortly.

[Catoneinutica]

This is awesome. This should be made into a sitcom. Hatoyama would be the straight-laced politician trying to get out of his grandfather's shadow, but he has this zany friend who's always getting him into trouble.

And has a brother who's one of the leaders of the opposition party! Although when the neckties come off and the Chivas starts pouring, public posturing and "manifestos" go out the window and it's good-timin' pork barrelin' all around!

[amdg]

October 26, 2007 P.121~125.

Title “The Reason I will carry out Executions.”
Interview with Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama
Partial translation by Michael H. Fox

Q: There is a big trend to abolish the death penalty worldwide. Why do you want to keep it in Japan?

A: The Japanese place so much importance on the value of life, so it is thought that one should pay with one’s life after taking the life of another. You see, the Western nations are civilizations based on power and war. So, conversely, things are moving against the death penalty. This is an important point to understand. The so called civilizations of power and war are opposite (from us). From incipient stages, their conception of the value of life is weaker than the Japanese. Therefore, they are moving toward abolishment of the death penalty. It is important that this discourse on civilizations be understood.


-----
So much importance on the value of life? Oh, I get it, he means Japanese life.

Anyone remember this guy? Okay, that's different because "he didn't actually kill anyone", did he?




Or how about the Kanto Earthquake? Where 362 Japanese were eventually charged for the murders and assualts of around 2000-3000 people. Most got off without jail time, and even those who went to jail were released with a general pardon on the marriage of Prince Hirohito. Yay for life!

[Midwinter]

would i personally make a scene at the airport? likely no more than a small show of annoyance to put a human face to the absurdity of what they're doing.

And then what? Roll over and take it like a bitch? It sure sounds like you're good at that, what with making all the faces and such. If you're angry about it, let them know. Tell the world, it's the only way to evoke change.

[Midwinter]

By the way, I am sure Midwinter deserves being fingerprinted and photographed.
This dude is a potential terrolist. I really think so.

You got me Takechancrap, well done. Now let's see your try and fingerprint me, shall we?