Only two weeks after it was sent to the chamber's floor and with little debate, the Lower House has passed a bill that will allow the fingerprinting and photographing of foreigners as they enter Japan. The legislation is now in the Upper House. The Justice Ministry says that the bill to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law is aimed at preventing the entry of terrorists into the country. Since the measures contained in the bill are drastic, the Upper House needs to conduct thorough deliberations on it. At present, the United States is the only country that photographs and fingerprints entrants, although a few European countries fingerprint foreigners when they apply for visas at overseas diplomatic missions.

Under the bill, foreigners entering or re-entering Japan would be required to be digitally fingerprinted and photographed at their port of entry. Foreigners in the following categories would be exempted from the requirements: children under the age of 16, diplomats and others who have been officially invited to Japan and people with a special permanent residency status -- mostly Koreans who began residing in Japan when Korea was a Japanese colony, and their offspring. But foreigners with ordinary permanent-residency status and even those from visa-exempted countries would be subjected to the requirements. The government reportedly intends to keep the biometric data for more than 70 years.

The biometric data collected from entrants would be checked against a list of those whom Japanese immigration authorities deported in the past and those who are on an international wanted list. The justice minister would be able to deport a person who is recognized as "having enough reason to be suspected of being likely to engage in preparatory activities" for terrorist activities or to carry out terrorist activities themselves. The definition of people who may be deported is so broad that the government should clarify in the Diet debate what kind of people would fall under the definition and what kind would not. In the worst case, people with certain opinions on politically sensitive issues might be denied entry into Japan.