Fingerprinting law under fire in Japan

Press, 4 November 1986, Page 38

Fingerprinting law under fire in Japan

By

TIM DONOGHUE

NZPA staff correspondent Hong Kong The Korean poet, Kim Myong-Shik and others like him have become the focal point of a campaign in Japan against legislation requiring foreign residents to be fingerprinted. Kim is no stranger to controversy. He has been imprisoned twice in the last decade in South Korea for his writings and human rights activities. Now he is taking on the Japanese Government’s Alien Registration Law which requires all foreigners living in Japan for more than a year to be fingerprinted from age 16. It also requires them to register and update their passbooks every five years. On each registration fingerprints are tnk6ii Article 14 of the Alien

Registration Law went into force after the American occupation on April 28, 1952. It then called for the taking of fingerprints of all foreigners 14 years old and over. Failure to comply could result in one year’s imprisonment. The practice was introduced to help control the flow of Koreans who were entering Japan illegally and using false identification. , Most of the illegal immigrants arrived by boat from across the Tsushima Straits which separate Japan’s southernmost island from Korea. Earlier this year Kim said he would refuse to give his fingerprints for reasons of conscience when his visa expired on June 19. In Japan foreigners and criminals are the two groups required by law to be fingerprinted. On May 2 The Ministry

of Justice responded by stating it would deport Kim if he did not relent.

During May and June thousands of people demonstrated in an effort to prevent his deportation.

On the day his visa expired he asked the Justice Ministry to change his student visa to a spouse visa which would allow him to remain in Japan under a new residence status. His request was denied and on June 20 he became an illegal alien. Although theoretically Kim could be deported at any time, the Justice Ministry decided to delay the deportation process and he remained free. Kim, who is 42, has the right to stay any deportation order and then challenge it in the courts. If the case goes to the Supreme Court it could take several years to re-

solve, during which time Kim would be allowed to remain in Japan. During the 19705, after completing undergraduate studies in law, political science and philosophy at South Korean universities, Kim turned to poetry. A poem (among other factors) critical of the Government of the late President Park ChungHee resulted in Kim’s imprisonment for nearly three years from March, 1976, to December, 1978. After his release he continued with his poetry and in May, 1980, was sentenced to preventive detention for three months.

Kim is far from being alone in his protest and international pressure mounting against the Government has resulted in minor changes being made to the legislation. Last year the number of foreigners to refuse or temporarily withhold their fingerprints in protest reached nearly 14,000. This figure is small compared to the total alien population in Japan of about 800,000. However the refusers have gained support from labour unions, the Ainu people and the small Taiwanese community in Japan. Confronted by international pressure the Japanese have eased alien registration requirements by moves such as using invisible ink instead of indigo for print taking. The administration of the Prime Minister, Yasuhiro Nakasone, is also considering an amendment which would require foreigners to be fingerprinted just once —- at the time of initial registration. . A revision bill including this measure is expected to be introduced at a regular Diet (Parliamentary) session due to convene in December.

The proposed change, along with those already introduced, has not im-

pressed people like a Korean woman, Choi Son Ae (who was born in Japan), and Kim. In August Choi, who is 26, flew from Japan to pursue her studies at an American university. Her refusal to be fingerprinted before departure meant she may never be allowed to return to the land of her birth. “Although I’m glad to be accepted by the American college, my heart aches when I think that I might never return to my home country of Japan,” Choi said. The position of Kim and Choi is that fingerprinting discriminates against foreign residents, symbolises alleged Japanese racial prejudice and makes them feel like criminals. Sensitivities surrounding the problem were exacerbated by remarks made by Mr Nakasone himself in September which he subsequently claimed had been quoted out of context. He said to his ruling Liberal Democratic Party that “the average level of knowledge in the United States is far less than in Japan because of the blacks, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans living in the United States.” He later apologised to the United States for the remark. However the fingerprinting requirement was defended recently by the director-general of the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Department, Mr Shunji Kobayashi. “Discrimination does constitute a violation of human rights, but differentiation does not always constitute discrimination,” Mr Kobayashi said. He said fingerprinting had virtually eliminated the illegal immigrant problem involving. Koreans. “It is effectively serving the law,” Mr Kobayashi said.