Keenan Leary is absolutely correct to imply in his Nov. 11 letter, "Accept getting ID'd or get out," that each country has the right to legislate its own laws, and these laws are to be respected by all who live within its borders. This is the essence of sovereignty. However, to facilitate international relations and to address global concerns, treaties, conventions and agreements have been drafted and, where ratified, should inform the framing of domestic laws.
In December 1995, Japan acceded to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. In June 1979, Japan ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and accepted the right of foreign residents to return to Japan without being discriminated against on the basis of country of origin. The present custom of allowing foreign residents with re-entry visas to join Japanese citizens at passport control acknowledges a de facto parity of treatment. From Nov. 20, this right will be denied.
Moreover, the Japanese e-passport (issued from March 2006), which allows the bearer to enter over 190 countries "without hindrance" or visa, carries on an RFID tag a JPEG of the holder's photo. Japanese citizens are not required to supply fingerprints to be digitized onto the chip. (In fact, it is unlikely that the locked 32-kilobyte chip is even large enough to carry prints.) From Nov. 20, however, nationals of the 190 countries that Japanese can "freely" visit will be required to submit to fingerprinting on entering Japan. So much for reciprocity.
Oblige Japanese passport applicants to be fingerprinted or revoke the discriminatory requirement of non-Japanese to be fingerprinted on entry. There is no justification for this abrogation of international commitments to eliminate discrimination.
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