Who runs checks on the Japanese? By ROBERT McKINNEY

READERS IN COUNCIL
Who runs checks on the Japanese?
By ROBERT McKINNEY
Tokyo

It is a pity that other countries in Asia don't have a similar law (and the fingerprinting technology) to discourage corrupt Japanese businessmen, Japanese sex tourists, Japanese drug peddlers and yakuza from visiting those places. It will seem odd that known Japanese criminals can easily enter Narita Airport from overseas and go briskly through airport security, while a group of American Boy Scouts are fingerprinted and photographed. We live in very strange times.

The Japanese pimp bringing in a young girl from Thailand won't be fingerprinted, but the girl who has been illegally transported to Japan for sexual exploitation will be! Go figure. And who will fingerprint the corrupt politician who agrees to price fixing and bid rigging?

No doubt some foreigners will leave Japan to protest this seemingly discriminatory law, but it would be pointless for any American to do so, since the U.S. government is already fingerprinting and photographing all foreign visitors to the United States. Why is it that Japan must ape America so often?

Pity that the gender-equality laws in Japan are not imitated so strictly! Or the laws against racial discrimination. In time, the Liberal Democratic Party will get around to such humanistic legal protections, but not today, not soon. For now, government control is a big deal. Eventually, the Japanese people will regret passively agreeing to such new security measures. Big Brother wants to reform the Education Law as well. Bashing foreigners will feel so very patriotic.

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.
The Japan Times: Sunday, May 28, 2006
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