In his Nov 11 letter, Donald Seekins wonders "Why exempt Korean residents (from biometric screening at ports of entry)?" The short answer is that "Korean residents" are not< /I> exempt. There is no such category in Japanese law, and Special Permanent Residents (SPRs) are not defined by nationality.
SPRs, which are rapidly decreasing, include about 50 nationalities spanning Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America, Oceania, and Stateless. The vast majority are either nationals of the Republic of Korea (ROK) or "Chosenese."
The latter is a residual legal status based on affiliation with a register in the defunct "Chosen" territory of the Empire of Japan. It has nothing to do with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) or with 38th-parallel politics. A few settled Chosenese are not qualified as SPRs, and an increasing number of resident ROK nationals are not SPRs. They will be fingerprinted and photographed, as will the very few DPRK nationals that Japan exceptionally admits.
The SPR status, which began in 1991, consolidated earlier treaty-based statuses and perpetuated the right of residence for the future generations of qualified aliens regardless of their present nationality. As such it recognized SPRs as all but Japanese. Hence their special treatment.
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