All Gaijin Required to carry IC card

[homesweethome]

Every foreigner between a 90 day tourist and a "special permanent resident" i.e. not a third generation Korean, will be required to carry the new card.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050607/kyodo/d8aiq2502.html

[FG Lurker]

Every foreigner between a 90 day tourist and a "special permanent resident" i.e. not a third generation Korean, will be required to carry the new card.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050607/kyodo/d8aiq2502.html

Interesting. I wonder what "special" permanent resident is? Just the Koreans who currently don't have to carry gaijin cards anyway?

In the end I don't think this will make all that much difference since all the data they listed in that article is already printed on every gaijin card. If having the data in a database means we can keep our cards longer than 5 years then this could be a benefit.

What I'd like to see changed is the requirement that perm res holders get reentry permits... That's a far bigger annoyance to me than having to carry my gaijin card around.

[nullpointer]

From TFA

Holders will be required to report any change of address and obtain permission to change jobs.

WTF?

[homesweethome]

I wondered what 'special Permanent residents' were also. These are the forced Korean slaves and their desendants Japan imported for the war effort. My worry is what the IC chip and 'current status, place of employment, and residence' along with any other information the government cares to gather on foreigners, will be on this 'new and improved card' that is accesable to anyone with the means. I know about the entry permit issue, but I wonder if this personal information, (that will be available to any jerk off police box occupant), couldn't be used for more unscrupulous means, and actually is already.

[jim katta]

Holders will be required to report any change of address and obtain permission to change jobs.

Double WTF!

If this clause is real, then this will go a long way towards that holy goal of Japan's to thin the ranks of gaijin living in japan. I thought japan had already expressed in enough ways that they didn't want gaijin, but this is a new low. This is really really saying, 'please stay the fuck out. and if you must come here, you must be our bitches.'

[homesweethome]

The Japanese government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party plan to require all foreigners staying in Japan for more than 90 days to carry identification cards equipped with integrated circuit chips, with all data to be kept at an "intelligence center," party lawmakers said Tuesday.

Intelligence Center?

WTF

Seig Heil!

[Mulboyne]

Holders will be required to report any change of address and obtain permission to change jobs.

It's not so much "permission to change jobs" and more a tightening of current rules. A number of FGs get a work visa from one company and, after quitting or being fired, use the same visa to stay in the country or take other work which is not technically allowed. I believe you are supposed to inform the ward office of your changed circumstances and move to a short-stay (90 day) visa while looking for a new sponsor. Almost nobody seems to do this. If the system behind this new card is enforced then a former employer will be obliged to say that you are no longer employed and your visa status will be changed. Presumably, if you don't also notify the ward office of your change in circumstances then you'll be on a blacklist somewhere. So you can quit and get new job just as before but you'll need the new employer to sponsor a visa.

[jim katta]

So you can quit and get new job just as before but you'll need the new employer to sponsor a visa.

I was following you up this point. The story doesn't say "you will have to notify the gov. of a job change" it says "you will have to ask PERMISSION to change your job."

I think you are, quite sensibly, assuming that this 'permission' is not to be taken literally, and that it really means we'll just have to notify of a job change. I HOPE you are right. but I've found that often, when the J-Gov. says something literal like that, they mean it. Let's hope you're right, but so far, I'm reading the story for what it says. I can't see living someplace where I have to ask permission to change jobs. no fucking way.

I'm curious, if this story is completely accurate, how many FGs here will leave japan because of it?

[homesweethome]

if you don't also notify the ward office of your change in circumstances then you'll be on a blacklist somewhere.

In the 'intelligence center'?

[shounenka]

[FG Lurker]

So you can quit and get new job just as before but you'll need the new employer to sponsor a visa.

I was following you up this point. The story doesn't say "you will have to notify the gov. of a job change" it says "you will have to ask PERMISSION to change your job."

I think you are, quite sensibly, assuming that this 'permission' is not to be taken literally, and that it really means we'll just have to notify of a job change. I HOPE you are right. but I've found that often, when the J-Gov. says something literal like that, they mean it. Let's hope you're right, but so far, I'm reading the story for what it says. I can't see living someplace where I have to ask permission to change jobs. no fucking way.

I think "permission" may have come from one of two points:

1) A translation error. Quite possible if the original article had vague wording as is so common in Japanese.

2) They might be tightening the visa regs again to better match what is required in the US. Try changing jobs if you're on a work visa in the US. (Especially something like an HB1B.)

I'm curious, if this story is completely accurate, how many FGs here will leave japan because of it?

Not many I'd guess. Long-termers are generally on spouse visas. Short term English teachers are hear for the money and will put up with it. Those in between get screwed though and who knows what they will do...

[FG Lurker]

[shounenka]

[homesweethome]

However, the carrying of the card makes a clear distinction in those within a special permanent resident such as Japan-South Korea lives country and Korean people and 90 days who short-term reside with mid/long-term those who reside who do not obligate, take part in the crime, and are rolled.

The constitution of Japan states: All citizens (legal residents) shall have the right to pursue the right of life. This means all legal residents are able under law to pursue the right to live by whatever (legitimate) means they see fit. What is it with this need to control based on 'first reason for entry'?

[jim katta]

funny thing is, I KNOW that even shoving a micro chip up all gaijin ass will NOT stop the Yakuza from using illegal iranians and africans in their drug trade. nor will it stop all the illegal phillipino, chinese and thai prostitutes coming into japan. this new card will not effect the people the J Gov. is "alleged" to be implementing it for. This is the clean up and out any gaijin who isn't under direct JGov./Yakuza (same thing) control.

[FG Lurker]

[quote="shounenka"]I remember back in my Japanese school days that the teachers would stress the importance of attendence in order to qualify for a renewal of a student visa/acquisition of a working visa. If the student's attendence rate fell below a certain %, they would inform the relevant authorities]
Yeah, my Japanese school was the same. They were real pricks about it too!

Attendance alone is not a very effective way to measure things though -- there were a few students in my class who would show up each morning and promptly go to sleep. They still got their visas though as they showed up every day!

[shounenka]

Attendance alone is not a very effective way to measure things though -- there were a few students in my class who would show up each morning and promptly go to sleep.

The Chinese/Korean contingent that would head off to baito right after class, work until the wee hours of the night, head back home for a drinking party with their fellow countrymen and then show up for school the next morning all assed out...yeah, I remember those guys.

[shounenka]

funny thing is, I KNOW that even shoving a micro chip up all gaijin ass will NOT stop the Yakuza from using illegal iranians and africans in their drug trade. nor will it stop all the illegal phillipino, chinese and thai prostitutes coming into japan. this new card will not effect the people the J Gov. is "alleged" to be implementing it for. This is the clean up and out any gaijin who isn't under direct JGov./Yakuza (same thing) control.

Whatever though, if you are a legally employed gaijin, you really have nothing to worry about.

And if this new legislation, aside from its proclaimed purpose, serves to crack down on some of the less desirable gaijin elements here (Chinese "masseuses" with int'l student visas particularly come to mind...), I'm for it.

[homesweethome]

Whatever though, if you are a legally employed gaijin, you really have nothing to worry about.

And if this new legislation, aside from its proclaimed purpose, serves to crack down on some of the less desirable gaijin elements here (Chinese "masseuses" with int'l student visas particularly come to mind...), I'm for it.

Wow! where did you come from? A place better than the rest of us I am sure.
YSDS? (your shit doesn't stink)

[shounenka]

Wow! where did you come from? A place better than the rest of us I am sure.
YSDS? (your shit doesn't stink)

Heheh, I knew it wouldn't be long before someone called me out on that one.

Half of the reason gaijin have so many obstacles in this country is because the actions of non-law abiding foreigners far, far outweigh those of law-abiding foreigners in the eyes of the Japanese.

That, and Chinese masseuses annoy me.

[Socratesabroad]

[Mulboyne]

I think I'll beg to differ on several points. As far as I can gather, changing jobs - albeit in the same field - is allowed without notifying anyone. That said, the former company will have to issue tax docs and a release form, the latter of which may be considered relevant to visa status.

I think this may be one of those "case-by-case" situations. Many years ago I got hauled over the coals for not notifying the ward office that my company had merged with another (six months before) when I came to renew my gaijin card. I hadn't left and I was still under the same contract of employment but they cancelled my visa and required me to leave and reapply at an overseas embassy. That was Shinagawa-ku. Everyone in exactly the same position in Shibuya, Meguro, Minato etc found no difficulties. To be fair, the embassy staff in HK thought it was pretty absurd and re-issued the visa fairly smartly. I must have done something to get up their nose but I have no idea what it was.

[homesweethome]

I must have done something to get up their nose but I have no idea what it was.

Your existance got up their nose.

[jim katta]

Half of the reason gaijin have so many obstacles in this country is because the actions of non-law abiding foreigners far, far outweigh those of law-abiding foreigners in the eyes of the Japanese.

dude, the vast majority of illegals working in japan are unofficially sponsored by the yakuza, this is fairly open acknowledged by the average japanese citizen (in the confines of their own home, not when speaking to the media). so again, these rules will do very little to effect the illegal massage women and drug dealers because the yakuza has them in check. this will effect two groups, those hapless westerner gaijin who have weird, though not completely illegal circumstances (temporarily between jobs, etc.), and that small group of foreigners who have managed to wiggle out from under the thumb of the yaks and are quietly living illegally, yet for all intents and purposes break no other laws other than visa restrictions.

at the end of the day, if it turns out the permission thing really isn't "permission" per se, then this new situation is not completely fucked. but I still have a big problem with having to walk around with a RFID computer chip holding all my personal info that can be be "remotely" scanned by any hacker worth his Akihabara snuff. this could create a nice new cottage industry of gaijin identity theft.

[kurohinge1]

Every foreigner between a 90 day tourist and a "special permanent resident" i.e. not a third generation Korean, will be required to carry the new card.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050607/kyodo/d8aiq2502.html

... Under the plan, foreigners will have to carry with them at all times IC cards that contain information such as their name, nationality, address, birth date, passport number, visa status and place of employment or study. Holders will be required to report any change of address and obtain permission to change jobs ...

But how can they quell the most common crime that foreigners are accused of without including: Bicycle number

[FG Lurker]

But how can they quell the most common crime that foreigners are accused of without including: Bicycle number

So true!

I'm still waiting for the day some cop decides he wants to check my bike... It's carbon so there is no number stamped under the bottom bracket.

(I know where it is on the bike but I think I'll watch them try to fumble around for a bit first.)

[FG Lurker]

Gov't plans to expand fingerprinting requirement for foreigners
JT, June 9, 2005

Japan plans to expand fingerprinting requirements for foreigners not only upon entry into the country but upon departure as well, as part of crime prevention measures, ruling party lawmakers said Wednesday. The government and the Liberal Democratic Party reached the agreement at a session of the party's panel on foreigners staying illegally in Japan.

(Full Story)

[cstaylor]

Is it really an RFID chip, and not a standard smartcard IC you see in some bank cards?

[FG Lurker]

Is it really an RFID chip, and not a standard smartcard IC you see in some bank cards?

It's probably an IC. RFID would be more secure actually as it would only store a number (much like a barcode). The number would be read into a computer that would then pull the data from a central database.

IC will keep the core data (name, address, etc) on the chip itself, which can then be linked back to the central database for further information.

In either case though I hope they get their encryption systems in order...

[cstaylor]

In either case though I hope they get their encryption systems in order...

If it's an IC chip, that encryption is already available on most cards. By not broadcasting the information over radio waves, casual reads by third parties are impossible.