Japan to run terror check on every visitor
All foreign visitors to Japan will be fingerprinted from next month as defence against terrorism.
Only some permanent residents, diplomatic visitors, and children under 16 will be exempt from the measures, the country’s Immigration Bureau said.
All adults will be photographed and fingerprinted on arrival and visiting aircraft and ships will also have to provide passenger and crew lists in advance.
Immigration officials will run the information through a database of international terror and crime suspects as well as against domestic crime records.
“We hope the system will help keep terrorists out of the country, and also put at ease the minds of both the Japanese people and the foreigners who come here,” a spokesman said.
The bureau plans to store the data for “a long time,” he said, but refused to give an exact figure.
Japan had 8.11 million foreign entries last year.
Opponents of the new system say the measures amount to discrimination against foreigners and a violation of their right to privacy.
