They seem hell-bent on introducing it, riding in on a vague feeling of unease to an influx of immigrants into the country.
Sound familiar?
It should.
It is something the Japanese government wants to do.
You thought I was talking about the ID scheme of the UK government?
Well, both have pretty close similarities, whilst the Japanese scheme will go further than Labours scheme. And unfortunately, the Japanese people do not have a strong history of human rights protests, so are not getting up in arms over it. Especially since it does not affect them, just the "gaijin." However, there is rumblings that whilst us gaijing are a suspicious bunch, that this is getting too far and treating us as criminals, rather than jsut 2nd class citizens, which we are.
As it stands, I have to carry my Aliens Residence Registration Card ("Gaijing Card") at ALL times. If I dont, and the Police want to check, I am hit with up to 1 year in jail, and a 200,000 yen fine. The card allows me to access local services should I need them, and I have to re-register every year at the local city hall. It is a pain in the arse, but the local city office does not really worry too much about me. In fact, the national government recently gave everyone 12,000 yen as a present, and the Kashiwazaki city office actually went to the trouble of translating the application form into English to help us dumb gaijin. OK, the translation was pretty mangled, but we managed to get through it all OK!
However, these registries are only held locally. Meaning that the national government has no idea what is going on, and the local governments are getting up the national governments collective nose by being NICE to us foriegners and helping us out!
So, the new plan is to scrap the current system, and replace it with a "better" system.
First off, I will no longer have to register at some small web covered, hardly used desk in the city hall, but will be properly registered on the main database, and enjoy my own residency certificate (juminhyo). Visa limits will be lifted to a maximum of 5 years from the current 3, and access to local services will be even easier than now.
However, on the other hand, they plan to tighten the noose around my neck with the devil hidden in the detail!
The new card will be the same as before with the same details as before. Home address, visa status, workplace, pghoto, etc. However, all this will be encoded on to a chip. Similar to the new chipped passports.
What is more insidious is the punishments.
This new system will be operated centrally, rather than from the local city office. This is where it starts getting iffy. At the moment, you have 2 weeks to report to the local city hall and report your arrival and they issue you a shiny card within a few days. Here in Kashiwazaki, its a 10 minute walk away. Under the new system, we will still have 2 calendar weeks, but we will have to report to an immigration office. Mine is on the wrong side of Niigata, an 90 minute drive away, and seriously understaffed. This gives me pretty much zero flexibility with regards sorting out any changes to my visa.
To make it worse, if you dont report any changes to your visa status, which can be something major like changing a job, all the way down to change of school, change of address, birth/death/or marriage. If you enjoy any of these, you have 2 weeks to report it. If not, 200,000yen fine. Fail to report it within 3 months? Lose the visa, no right of appeal.
The IC chip can be swiped to access its information. There has been talk of making foriegners submit to a scan every time they want to enter a public building (the initial list included places of public gathering, such as soccer stadiums! Needless to say, the Japanese government has, at least, recognised the stupidity of THAT one!)
Not only that, but it looks increasingly likely that the Police will be given remote scanners to scan IC cards remotely. Meaning that I can be scanned and tagged by the Police at any time, without my knowledge. They can keep track of me 24 hours a day, just by driving a car past my apartment! Also, this means it is likely that foriegners are going to be targetted by criminals who will "rip" the identity information off my card, and use it when committing crimes.
Not only that, but it will take racial profiling to whole new levels, as the Police scan a crowd, find a foriegner who does not have a card, only to find they are naturalised Japanese. And there are plenty of those!
Needless to say, protests are beginning to spread, and I will DEFINATELY be buying myself a scan blocker!
Orwells "1984" is getting ever closer...
1 comment:
Damn dude. Aren't VISA's just fun for everyone? Man. Backflips. Fucking triple lutz double toe loop, dude! Isn't it awesome how our nearest immigration office is all the way in Niigata Kuukou? Why oh WHY couldn't they keep the one in Teradomari? That would have been a 30-minute tryst rather than a sadistic day-long ordeal!
Understaffed and not prepared to handle foreigners. Given that the subject matter is rather dire, you definitely want to have an iota of comprehension when dealing with Immigration. When I asked my supervisor to assist me, she laughed and said: "It's the immigration office. They speak English there."
Lies.
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