Ready to be fingerprinted and photographed? What’s behind the Accenture contract?

November 17, 2007
By Ken Worsley

In last week’s edition of Terrie’s Take, Japan Inc.’s Terrie Llyod commented on the new system for fingerprinting all foreigners coming into Japan beginning on November 20. As he put it:

Even if you live permanently in Japan, own property, have chidren at Japanese schools, own a company and pay taxes to the Japanese government, changes to immigration procedures at Narita airport will require you to go through new rigourous checks and balances including eye-scanning and finger printing. Aside from the inconvenice, what messages is the Japanese government sending to potential foreign investors and business people?

First, before anyone says that the US does the same thing and thus Japan is justified in its actions, I want to say why I think that line of argument would be risible:

1) The only folks exempt from fingerprinting in Japan are special permanent residents, diplomats and children. These are almost all second or third generation immigrants who should be granted the identical treatment of citizens.

2) The US does not fingerprint work visa or green card holders. Japan will. Those of us who are permanent residents, on spousal visas or working visas will be fingerprinted and photographed.

3) The US has instituted a stupid policy that has made it look more like a police state in the eyes of the world. Copying stupid policies is not good policy making.

Why save so much more data? Why fingerprint and photograph those folks who pay taxes and contribute to the economy? Might it have something to do with business?

The media seems very reluctant to talk about the contract awarded by the government for the setting up of this system, which can be read about here on the Ministry of Justice website. The bid was investigated by diet member Nobuto Hosaka. According to Gyaku, when he read the amount of the bid, Hosaka posted this in his blog:

When I read it on the net, I had to rub my eyes for a moment. In this document, it was noted that Accenture, a company headquartered in Bermuda, had been awarded a service contract for software development and testing of a system to handle biometric information from fingerprinting and mug shot data, the same data collection that I had brought into question in earlier deliberations on immigration regulations. The successful bid for this contract was awarded at a price of only 100,000 yen (maintenance services: 90,000 yen, product development expenses: 10,000 yen) (translation by Gyaku)

The approach I’ve seen thus far taken by those who hate the fingerprinting system is to fill out online petitions, write letters and raise awareness. This is all good, because the system is ill-conceived and stupid. However, someone is going to have to follow the money and kickbacks. A 100,000 yen bid is blatant, as is the media’s silence.

Filed Under Foreigners, Japan, Politics

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Comments

33 Responses to “Ready to be fingerprinted and photographed? What’s behind the Accenture contract?”

John S on November 17th, 2007 6:56 pm

I already know a few people who have put off trips to Japan due to this. They’re hoping it will be gone in a year or so and they’ll be able to come over to Japan without being treated like a criminal at immigration. Of course, they were surprised to hear that the US does nearly the same thing.
Cervantes on November 18th, 2007 11:31 am

Being treated like a criminal is the price you pay for criminals not to treat you. At leats, when you enter Japan you enjoy one of the safest countries in the world (can’t say same thing about the US), any policy to enforce that is a worthwhile one, IMHO.

And what is more, I feel being treated like cattle rather than a criminal every time I’ve been politely told to place my finger somewhere and to look some camera. Sorry, got nothing to hide, and I pay taxes, yes… so what? White collar criminals are more likely to be recognited and stopped this way.

Also, you waste in that no more than 5 seconds. If Japanese nationals enter their country 5 seconds earlier than me I won’t feel as bad as when I find the last 2 seats free in the subway are those next to me (even then, I don’t feel bad at all. You live here, you get used to it)
Jim D on November 18th, 2007 3:10 pm

I guess Abu Hamza would just walk right through….
Ken Worsley on November 18th, 2007 3:17 pm

Being treated like a criminal is the price you pay for criminals not to treat you.

This is just not true. How will being treated like a criminal at the airport make it any less likely for anyone to be the victim of a crime once they arrive in Japan?

There is no connection whatsoever in the probability of (whether one is a victim of crime in Japan) based on the result of (whether one is photographed and fingerprinted at the airport).
Pellegrini on November 18th, 2007 4:53 pm

“At leats, when you enter Japan you enjoy one of the safest countries in the world (can’t say same thing about the US), any policy to enforce that is a worthwhile one, IMHO.”

Cervantes, are you suggesting that fingerprinting non-Japanese
will help maintain Japan’s relatively low crime rates?

Interesting.

I thought that this was all about terrorism.
Jeremy on November 18th, 2007 5:43 pm

I don’t mind too much about the fingerprinting and photographs
since I have nothing to hide. Hell that is nothing compared
to the fact that my daughter officially has no father since
I am a gaijin. This is according to the Japanese Register Book. I ha
have more of a problem with that.

One thing that does bother me is it will be difficult to separate
from my wife when entering that area since she’ll have to watch
a 6 month old and a crazy 4 year old who runs all over the damn
place (This is 8 months in the future when we go to the U.S to
visit).
df on November 18th, 2007 7:04 pm

Personally I have a problem with fingerprinting and photographs. It is isn’t so much how the information is used now but how it will be used going forward. Some fundamental questions for me are whether or not we can trust government or corporates (in any country) to;

1. securely capture such information
2. securely store it
3. ensure individual rights are protected in its use

Now what is it with this Accenture deal? Would like to hear more.

Oh, and I saw the latest initiative to attract tourists to Japan this week. Way to lay out the welcome mat! “At our great risk we welcome you to Japan.”
Jose on November 18th, 2007 7:18 pm

I would think the very existence of the Accenture deal would be enough of a red flag to show people that this system is not what it seems, or what’s it’s being touted as.
Cervantes on November 18th, 2007 7:19 pm

Allowme to please explain my first statement clearly:

Whenever I’ve been treated like a criminal (by mistake always, I swear!) I took it as a cheap price for law enforcers to work properly for all of us. They just do their job, sometimes aganist you (by mistake, I repeat) but this shows the system works.

I don’t mean I’m not gonna be targeted by criminals once policemen targets me, of course not. It’s just we all are gonna be safer as they (the policemen by example) do their job, even for our own disturbance. May law enforcement take no measures at all, the consequences would be worse.

And answering Pellegrini too, I will indeed say yes… and, regarding terrorism, even more than yes. Can’t think on a famous japanese terrorist right now…
Jeremy on November 18th, 2007 8:08 pm

The word would be “notorious” or “infamous” and Shoko Asahara

is one. I was hear during the gas attack on his fellow Japanese

people in Tokyo. Even crazier than that he sprayed that crap

all around Yamanashi ( I think that was the place) and the

authorities did nothing!

Also, the “Red Army”, another formidable group of Japanese terrorists.
Ok, it was the 70’s but it proves they have and can be terrorists too.

Another one is the right wing party. During the 1998 Nagano Olympics
they shot a few rockets at the airport (missed) and unbelievably
it got relatively no press and nobody was prosecuted!?

So, there are and have been Japanese terrorists in the past.
Kraig on November 18th, 2007 8:18 pm

I don’t remember the rockets shot at the airport, but there were homemade explosives let off near Camp Zama a couple of years ago and I don’t think it was really investigated much at all. Same goes for the nuts who throw firebombs at political party or newspaper headquarters. We always hear that it was a ‘former member’ of a violent gang who gets 1-3 years on a suspended sentence. Fact is that the Japanese justice system is letting this go on without punishment.
Pellegrini on November 18th, 2007 8:48 pm

Yes, the higher-ups in Japan are keen to
maintain the idea that all terrorists are
non-Japanese.

Earlier this summer the cops caught a guy in
Saitama making bombs at home. His trial began
in September, but there has been no mention of
it in the press since the start of the trial.
Complete silence.

“A man intended to set off a bomb on a Tokyo
commuter train using homemade explosives,
prosecutors said Monday as his trial opened at
the Tokyo District Court.” (Japan Times English
Edition, September 11, 2007).

The cops caught onto his antics partly because
he allegedly conducted a test explosion of his
homemade TATP (triacetone triperoxide). As I
live on the same train line as the would-be
bomber, I’m glad that he made it easy for
the cops to find him.

It goes without saying that fingerprinting
non-Japanese will do nothing to curb this type
of crime/terrorism.
Jeremy on November 18th, 2007 8:54 pm

There were rockets shot at the airport. Of course the Japanese
authorities would want to keep the story quiet with people
arriving at the airport from all over the world. It was on
the crap news that was translated into English and it went
something like this ‘today three rockets were fired at the
airport from behind hills of a farmer field. they missed
and did not cause any harm…moving on to…” They also
had a very tiny article about it in the paper a few days later.

Red Army members are still wanted in Japan. They hijacked some
airplanes (here) and some fled to North Korea. Others around
the world.
Ken Worsley on November 18th, 2007 10:31 pm

Cervantes, given the data I’ve seen on crime, I don’t see how fingerprinting and photographing foreigners could possibly, by any stretch of the imagination, help keep Japan’s crime rate down. We know that crimes committed by foreigners as a proportion of their population have been going down for a few years now, while crimes committed by Japanese have been increasing proportionally. It doesn’t even seem as though keeping Japan’s crime rate low could be a possible outcome of this policy.
David on November 19th, 2007 12:15 pm

It should be remembered that officially this is not about crime but about terrorism. It doesn’t make sense as a crime initiative. From crime statistics I have seen it appears that about 99% (once special foreign residents are included with Japanese) of crimes are committed by people not subjected to the fingerprinting. If you want to attack a problem you don’t focus on the 1% you focus on the 99%.

After reading the referred article on Japaninc it has me more worried. I have a common name so it is almost certain to bring up a match of some sort. The last trip I did in the US I flew out of 3 airports and at all of them I had to do the extra security check, no problems with immigration though.
Kraig on November 19th, 2007 6:34 pm

More good stuff over here:

http://reentryjapan.blogspot.com/
Laura on November 20th, 2007 1:58 am

oh dear…
The introduction of this law continues to set aside those who are not native, intentionally and willfully singling out those who are other. Whether or not it is used in the states is no excuse for a gross exaggeration of immigration (or penal) issues. Xenophobic at best (despite botched rationalizations to the contrary) it is completely audaciously racist at its worst.
India, The States, Morocco, Belgium, Belize or Xxxx; a nationality is not an identity and any scheme to over-simplify this is unforgivably absurd.

I understand the need for a public concept of security but I hardly think fingerprinting and photographing will in any way facilitate such an ideal; if anything it will increase paranoia.
The non-native population in japan has no reason to be set aside for additional, and completely unnecessary, identification checks.
Full stop.
There are odd looks on the subway and the occasional empty seat, police asking for identification and the occasional mumbled remark…
but should there be?

Accenture thinks so apparently.

Thanks Ken. Your blog is much needed and much appreciated.
Bill Randall on November 20th, 2007 1:17 pm

Ken, I look forward to your follow-ups in the future, when you let us know just how awful the economic impact is.

Such complex solutions seem to be doomed from the start. I read– I think in the Economist– a week or two ago about the massive boondoggle US-VISIT has been. Not only do I feel unwelcome every time I return home, hundreds of millions of my tax dollars have sunk into a program with no measurable effect, no oversight, no open debate and no end in sight. It’s cut down on tourism, steered business away, been awful for soft diplomacy, and it just sucks.

I expect the Japanese version to be much worse. I fear bureaucratic ineptness as much as this new (to me) info about the 100K yen rigged bid. I don’t want my data going to Bermuda without me, but I also don’t want– through oversight, error, or enforcer’s whim, to end up in a justice system with a 95 % conviction rate. Worse yet, in-between countries with no rights at all.

Yet I read that the UK is researching a similar system? This could be a trend, if the Japanese version doesn’t fall apart.
Ken Worsley on November 20th, 2007 4:08 pm

hundreds of millions of my tax dollars have sunk into a program with no measurable effect, no oversight, no open debate and no end in sight. It’s cut down on tourism, steered business away, been awful for soft diplomacy, and it just sucks

This is what I see as the problem. Japan’s done quite a bit to promote tourism (sometimes even effectively), try to take steps toward establishing a regional financial hub and build on soft diplomacy.

The public, however, seems to be convinced in both the US and Japan that this is somehow both necessary and useful. It’s interesting how easy it was to convince them.
df on November 20th, 2007 6:04 pm

If this intervention is designed to stop “terrorists” from entering Japan then how will that work? Are known terrorists data stored in the database and when a terrorist tries to enter Japan they are identified by the system? I this what happens in the US?

Or does it perform more of a post-event function? You know, unknown terrorist enters Japan, blows up some stuff, police pick up his remains and match them to the “biometric” data. Which might make for an efficient investigation but certainly does not make the public any safer.

Does anyone have any practical explanation of how this system makes people in Japan any safer?
Ciaran O'Riordan on November 20th, 2007 7:35 pm

Thanks for this info, I’ve linked your post from mine. In mine, I have a suggestion for a counter-campaign: one fingered gloves, or plasters of an agreed colour.

This would undermine one purpose of their database and would be an easy but visible protest to let the population know what fingerprintees think of the procedure.

My blog entry about one fingered gloves.
John S on November 20th, 2007 11:57 pm

one fingered gloves, or plasters of an agreed colour.

If you don’t give your fingerprint, they won’t let you in.
Bob on November 21st, 2007 12:00 pm

This system will catch people who were kicked out of Japan, got a new name and new passport, and then try to enter Japan. Also, perhaps some facial recognition software will assist in street crime prevention (ie crimes where a ATM camera gets a good picture or people hanging out on the streets of Shibuya). In addition, having the system will make some criminals think twice before entering Japan.

However, professional criminals will just get smarter and still get past the system. The system will also produce a false sense of security (creating more danger), and there will be false positives. The false positives is probably the scariest part, how many innocents will not be treated as criminals?

The basic question is about human rights, specifically, the right to privacy. In a free, democratic society all should be treated the same. What this system does is create a two-tiered society. The haves and have-nots. It won’t be very long until this type of technology is used by the government on citizens. Will the people of Japan then complain? Or, how about children wanting to go to a public school will be required to submit biometric data. It’s a slippery slope, if you are willing to start down it you will end up at the bottom.

National security cannot be defined. Human rights and personal liberties can be. When people talk about security, it’s a vague and pointless discussion… and usually involves grand amounts of money to ‘create’ security. Personal liberties are _very_ clear cut and generally free (if not low cost). Freedom of speech, religion, assembly… basic rights that will disappear because nobody can make money off of them.
Greg L. on November 22nd, 2007 9:36 am

There has been talk of Japan sharing this biometric data with the U.S. government. If this is in fact turns out to be the case, would there be any legal implications with the U.S. government storing he biometric data of U.S. citizens who visited Japan?

I really hope this law gets repealed. It is so regressive and I really don’t believe other countries will be following the lead of the U.S. or Japan.

Anyway, if there is a real risk of terrorism on Japanese soil how about starting by implementing some genuine security in public places? Destroying all the unattended luggage in Japanese airports would be a good start - might annoy a few people though! Most security is just a pretense anyway. When you go to Narita airport, there are hundreds of security guards who check the passport of every person entering the airport - be it by car, bus or train. However, if you tell them you don’t have your passport and you’re there to pick-up or drop-off someone, they let you go through anyway!
Ken Worsley on November 22nd, 2007 5:40 pm

There has been talk of Japan sharing this biometric data with the U.S. government.

Greg, I thought that was the whole point from the get-go…
Greg L. on November 22nd, 2007 10:56 pm

Ha! I just didn’t want to state it as fact because I had only heard it second hand. Anyway, it doesn’t change the fact that the US government will hold the biometric data of ordinary US citizens. I know if that was New Zealand, people would be kicking up an enormous stink. We do tend to get a bit worked up though - not just over virgin sheep!
Steven on November 23rd, 2007 1:43 am

My family and I have visited Japan a few times previously as tourists. We enjoyed it a lot and we certainly intend to visit again.

Or should I say “intended”. I have a big problem with giving my fingerprints up to a government authority for the mere act of entering the country. I have already turned down business trips to the US because I would get the same treatment there. The US has seen a large downturn in tourism since instituting this policy (partly due to a general ratcheting up of entry zone paranoia), during a huge boom in tourism generally. I wonder if the same will happen to Japan.

Many people can’t understand why I would be worried - and I can imagine for a lot of people it’s not a problem. My problems are 1) it makes me feel like a criminal, 2) it makes me feel that the host country is xenophobic, 3) I do not trust the government to either store securely or not abuse the data, and 4) I feel it is the first step on a slippery slope to authoritarianism, and I don’t want to be a part of it on principle.

Well, you can count me out and I’m rather sad about it (because I crave that Hokkaido snow most of all).
MG on November 25th, 2007 1:50 am

I have sat down with my family and decided not to take the trip to Japan we had been planning. We’re looking for an alternative place now, and we won’t be buying Japanese products any time soon, with the Humpback hunt going on as well. Our protest may seem small, but we will give give our prints or photos to a government that has no authority to collect them.
john on November 26th, 2007 2:00 pm

The “5 second check” is a myth, it’s enough time to read and store the data, but not enough time to check it against 800,000 records. If they really can check your prints in 5 seconds they have no reason to store them any longer than that. The implication is that we are all potential criminals, in which case they should print everyone.

This will damage business and tourism, fewer business people will come to Japan, and Japanese people will be forced to travel abroad to do business, and we all know how far a teeth sucking umming and ahhing salaryman will get in NYC.
Kraig on November 26th, 2007 2:50 pm

The vast, vast, majority of Japan’s tourists come from Asia, not the west. I don’t see that demographic having much trouble with the new measures.
Leon on November 26th, 2007 9:26 pm

This system will catch people who were kicked out of Japan, got a new name and new passport, and then try to enter Japan.

True, but not in time. The “system” does nothing but take records, which are processed the following day. Any matches will be picked up then, not instantly at the airport, so its a total farce to even suggest that its going to have any impact on people entering the country. What I think we will see is an increase in aggressive policing in trying to find those who slip through the cracks.
Chris on December 10th, 2007 11:06 am

Hi Ken,

Thanks so much for picking the Accenture story up, we’ve been harping about this for nearly a year now but up until the fingerprinting regulations were actually put in place people didn’t seem to take much notice. Now people are finally starting to link to the translations, which is great. The name “Accenture” seems to have dropped out of sight w.r.t. the fingerprinting stuff, I really don’t know what happened but I think the company got the feeling that this might not bode well for them publicity-wise and is lying low.

“However, someone is going to have to follow the money and kickbacks. A 100,000 yen bid is blatant, as is the media’s silence.”

Exactly. Can you believe it? Hello, Japan Times? Goes to show if nobody does something you just have to do it yourself.
Swedish citizen on February 25th, 2008 5:08 am

I won’t be visiting Japan. Neither will I visit the USA again. I’m an honest, highly-educated, hard-working, unpunished foreigner, willing to spend some money in your country, but I won’t give anyone my blood or other tissues from my body. Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty”?

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Ready to be fingerprinted and photographed? What’s behind the Accenture contract?

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