Ok this is my time for ranting.
I have one word i want to say about Japan. That is r.a.c.i.s.t. Sorry to all my Japanese friends reading this. It’s not your fault. It’s your government’s fault.
Why do they have to treat us like a criminal? Because they can.
The new law has just come in that requires all foreigners to be photographed/fingerprinted/interviewed upon entry into Japan and those fingerprints will be used if any foreigner commits a crime in Japan in the future. Your fingerprints will be matched to the fingerprints at the crime to see if they are a match. To see if you are a criminal. So that means you could be a suspected criminal god knows how many times in your life without knowing.
To top it off, your fingerprints will be kept for 70 years. Ridiculous!
Read this article for the low down. Then read this blog entry that i found mirrors my thoughts exactly.
Ok, apparently it’s not enough that i’m pointed at, stared at and ignored when i’m in Japan. Now they have the law the states they can treat me like a second class citizen if they feel like it.
I’m going to Japan next march 2008 but at the moment i don’t really feel like going…last night i was in a rage, today i’m simmering away. Hopefully by March i can just go there and be like “yeah whatever”…
Hubby’s argument is that even if you don’t want to sell your soul to get into Japan (which is what i said the fingerprinting/photographing is) that what experience you might be losing in Japan is worth it. I guess there are two ways to look at it.
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Yeh, it annoys me too. I wouldn’t mind if they were fingerprinting Japanese as well, but I don’t like being singled out as being a possible criminal.
Having said that, it’s a sucky government policy and there are so many wonderful things here, I wouldn’t let it destroy any travel plans.
Im here at the moment and seriously thinking of moving on…its total fucking racism..no one can tell me any different… add that to the fact that you cant get an apartment here, people move away from you on trains, you wil be denied entry to bars etc (Japanese only signs) and it all adds up… stay away from Japan, sorry
Oh, you get the people moving away from you on trains too? That’s one of the worst. It’s as if we smell bad or something… someone told me it was because Japanese people think we might ask them something in English so they move away because they can’t speak. But, why couldn’t they just ignore us instead of moving away? It’s so blatant. I have vowed that if they do that to me again i will follow them and keep sitting or standing next to them…just to irritate them!
I *have* to go back to Japan. If i don’t, it’s going to be difficult to get along with my Japanese in-laws. They don’t know how i feel and couldn’t understand, and probably won’t give me any lee-way. It’s expected.
But i totally get where you are coming from! Been there done that. And it’s worse to be related, let me tell you! Especially if you’re female. Then, they have every right to ignore you…or they think they do!
I’m an Aussie guy married to a Japanese woman. I’ve just got back from a trip to Japan. I entered before the fingerprinting cut over date, but saw a patronising video in the ridiculously long immigration queue. I love Japan and have made many trips, but I won’t be making any more. I sympathise with permanent residents (but wish some of them would stop pushing the “fingerprint tourists by all means but not us!” line). As for the rest of us, I’d say enough is enough. Let’s vote with our feet.
This is a dumb move on Japan’s Part. Japan needs all the friends it can get. China is now more important to the Japanese economy than Australia. If Japan wants to insult visitors, then the visitors will go elsewhere, so stay away. There’s nothing you can say to them that’ll make them change their mind: The LDP brats are that pig headed. Maybe when tourism and trade plunges, they’ll rethink. As for the Japanese population who vote for the LDP, you deserve what you get. The Tokugawa regime lives.
Correction: “China is now more important to the Australian economy than Japan.”
Personally, the only thing that bugs me about this new system is the waiting time. Having been an immigrant, I’ve already been exposed to all sorts of racist treatment - you can say that I’ve got a tougher skin from those experiences. I don’t really care if they compare my fingerprints with those found at crime scenes, because I know I wouldn’t be committing any crimes, period. Moreover, if the government is so confident that their own Japanese people aren’t doing any crimes, then let them see how well the fingerprinting system fares at catching criminals.
Having people move away from you on trains must be quite hard… If I were you, I’d probably confront those seat movers (or follow them around like you mentioned! =D). But then again, at least people are not shoving their bags onto your lap, pretending you’re invisible (by a guy nonetheless, who was too busy impressing his girlfriend to care about blatantly invading my personal space. Asshole.). I’d take more personal space over no personal space anytime.
I’m sick of being stared at whenever I go outside my apartment. I’m sick of people moving away from me on trains. I’m sick of going to a bar and being ignored. I’m sick of being considered a criminal by the Governer of Tokyo. I’m sick of getting my wife to become a member of the video library because “foriegners” cannot join. I’m sick of having to give my meishi to people so they can judge whether to give me respect or not.
Some people talk about ‘positive discrimination’. There IS NO positive discrimination. When I am invited somewhere BECAUSE I’m a “foreigner”, this is NOT a positive experience.
Japan doesn’t seem to understand it needs all the friends it can get. It seems to be hell bent on trying to annoy the very people who take the time and trouble to go and enjoy Japan.
The place is plagued by stupid politicians and bureaucrats who have enjoyed their privelidged positions for far to long.
I have lived and worked in Japan for a considerable period but I cannot see myself going again.