Japan to Start Fingerprinting Foreign Travelers

Posted by Zonk on Sunday November 18, 2007 @04:42PM from the welcome-to-the-country-you-get-to-leave-a-piece-behind dept.

rabiddeity writes "If you're planning to visit Japan sometime in the near future, you should be aware of the welcome you'll get. Last year, Japan's parliament passed a measure requiring foreigners to submit their fingerprints when entering the country. The measures, which apply to all foreigners over 16 regardless of visa status, take effect tomorrow. The worst part: the fingerprints are stored in a national database for an "unspecified time", and will be made available to both domestic police and foreign governments."

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Shared? by schwit1 · 2007-11-18 16:51 · Score: 5, Interesting

So the Japanese fingerprint the Americans entering there and the US fingerprints the Japanese coming here, and then sharing is permitted. So in reality each government is getting access to its citizens fingerprints without violating any privacy laws.

Am I supposed to just accept that this violation-by-proxy is legal?