Japan to fingerprint foreign visitors
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Japanese newspapers said under the new measures , approved by parliament last year, all foreigners aged 16 or older will be photographed and electronically
fingerprinted when they enter Japan .
CBC news said under the rules, Japan’s justice minister will be able to expel foreigners who are suspected of involvement in terrorist activities. Airlines and ships will have to provide passenger and crew lists before they arrive in Japan.
To enter the country, foreigners must agree to be photographed and have electronic images of their fingerprints taken.
The images will be checked against those in international crime and terrorism databases, as well as domestic crime records, and then stored for an unspecified time, the report said.
The only exceptions will be state guests, diplomats and some permanent residents of Japan.
Japan fingerprinted all arriving foreigners until 2000, when the requirement was dropped because of a public outcry over invasion of privacy, the report said.
Japan is the second country to implement such measures, after the US.
Japan received 7.5 million foreign visitors in 2005.
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