Are Japanese nationals fingerprinted?

Non-AFIS biometric systems record
features, not the whole fingerprint

Yes they can be, but it is not required except for employment in certain specialized professions. Not all non-Japanese are fingerprinted either:

• Special Permanent Residents (特別永住者; SPRs)
• those under sixteen (16) years old
• and overseas VIPs (anybody using a "Diplomat" or "Official" passport to enter the country)

are also exempt.

The origins of fingerprinting foreign residents in East Asia

The process of fingerprinting foreign residents as part of the registration law in (post War) Japan first began in 1952. The reasons for this were primarily to supplement and support weak identification technology at the time: international and domestic identification such as passports and alien registration cards lacked the modern technology of today such as: microprinting, holograms, ultra-violet reactive ink, color-shifting ink, advanced tamper resistant materials, trackable ID numbers, and encrypted and digitally signed digital RFID chips.

Because of the constant concern of phony credentials, passports from certain countries (ex. Barbados, Lesotho, Malaysia, Serbia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey) that have more security technology are allowed to stay in Japan as visitors longer than people from the same country using older passports lacking modern security technology.

The sale and manufacture of false or altered passports and false alien registration was much easier back then and their were many incidents of foreign agents entering and staying in Japan under false credentials. Over its modern history since the fifties, Japan has discovered many unauthorized and high profile agents within its borders that used bogus passports to get in and false alien registration cards to stay inside Japan.

Close pictures and pictures of the interior of the Blue House are prohibited for security reasons

In 1968, DPRK, then being ruled by KIM Il-sung (金 日成 {KIMU · Iruson}), sent 31 North Korean elite military commandos from Unit 124 across the DMZ border to storm the "Blue House" (the executive offices and official residence of the Republic of Korea's head of state; 青瓦台 {seigadai}) in the capital city of Seoul (ソウル特別市 {SŌRU tokubetsu-shi}) and assassinate the 3rd President of the new democratic government of the ROK, PARK Chung-hee (朴 正煕 {PAKU · Chonhi}). The "Blue House Raid" is known in Japanese as 青瓦台襲撃未遂事件Seigadai shūgeki misui jiken or 金新朝事件KIMU · Shinjo jiken.

Three days after that failed assassination attempt, the U.S. NSA/Navy spy ship USS Pueblo — whose mission was SIGINT against the USSR (ソビエト連邦 {SOBIETO Renpō}) — was captured in the Sea of Japan (日本海 {Nihon-kai}) by North Korea while leaving from the U.S. base in 神奈川県横須賀市 {Kanagawa-ken Yokosuka-shi} (Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture) followed by the joint JMSDF/USN base in 長崎県佐世保市 {Nagasaki-ken Sasebo-shi} (Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture). This is known in Japanese as プエブロ号事件 {PUEBURO-gō jiken} (the Pueblo Incident).

After these incidents, South Korea took a cue from Japan's fingerprinting system and began taking the fingerprints (all ten) of its foreigners in order to reduce incidents like the above from happening again.

Even as late as 1988, secret agents of North Korea's late Supreme Leader, KIM Jong-il (金 正日KIMU · Jon'iru), used fake Japanese passports to commit the terrorist act of planting a bomb on KAL 858.

For a FBI background check

When I first came to Japan in 1993, old-school ink-roll fingerprints of all ten fingers at the local Ward Office was the norm and the law. As part of the process of receiving one's Alien Registration Card (外国人登録証明書 {gaikokujin tōroku shōmeisho}; ARC), non-Japanese would press all ten of their fingers onto a specialized black ink pad especially for fingerprints and do a "full roll" (nail to nail) in ten boxes on a piece of paper.

After this was done, your ten prints (provided you still have all ten fingers!) would be stored, on plain paper with ink, at your local 区役所／市役所 {kuyakusho/shiyakusho} (Ward Office/City Hall) as unlike the current 在留カード {zairyū kādo} (Residence Card), the records for alien residents in Japan were kept with local governments, not centrally stored at the national level.

Then, we were encouraged to introduce ourselves to the police officers on duty at the local 交番 {kōban} ("police box"; mini police station) so they would know us. The officers noted the information about our addresses in a separate local log. This step, by the way, was recommended but optional and not required by law.

alien registration fingerprinting ended in 1999

Your issued ARC would then have your right index finger print in the bottom right hand corner.

The joke back then was that if you were going to commit a crime, remember to only use your other nine fingers.

But actually, many identity cards around the world have a fingerprint on the card, and the size and placement of a fingerprint on an identity card is standardized by ICAO 9303, the same organization that standardizes the security features on passports and other international travel documents.

The print is neither useful for law enforcement (which would ideally need all ten fingers and the "full roll" from nail-to-nail rather than the smaller window of the print in the center) nor is it usually useful as a substitute for a signature or bio-identification for daily use as it is not digital and it takes training in order to learn how to compare fingerprints — something that only a select few in fields related to law enforcement have. The lone fingerprint is actually there to make forgery & alteration of the card more difficult (one would have to change the fingerprint area as well as the photo area); at the time, a fingerprint was considered to be a more "universal" form of uniqueness — and more reliable — than a signature.

Comparisons to other countries' foreigner identification cards

fingerprinting aliens since 1977

2010 U.S. cards still fingerprint

Japan was following the lead of other countries (in particular, the United States) and used the forgery/tamper guards technology they used in they Permanent Resident Cards (aka "Green Cards").

An interesting contrast is how the United States system is that the cards they issue with fingerprints are issued only to United States non-citizens that are Permanent Residents.

In the United States, you would get a card with a fingerprint after obtaining Permanent Resident Status, whereas in Japan your fingerprint would be removed from your identification card upon becoming a permanent resident!

thumbprint on back;
foreigners cards are red/pink

Brazil collects the fingerprints of not just foreign residents in its country, but of its nationals/citizens as well, and stores the fingerprints in a central database as well as electronically on an ID Card (which is issued to Brazilian nationals as well as foreign residents) linked by a 2D barcode. All ten fingerprints are also stored inside Brazilian e-passport RFID contactless chip for biometric identification. Not carrying the ID Card is not illegal, but Brazilian police can escort anybody to a police station for a digital background check. Also, the ID card is used for so many tasks in day to day life that not carrying one can be inconvenient.

The origins of the abolition of fingerprinting foreign residents in Asia

In Japan, some non-Japanese complained about fingerprints because they believed that in their home countries, the practice of fingerprinting was only done for criminals.

Starting during the eighties, Koreans (both South and North) and other large foreign resident communities of Japan such as Brazilians began protesting by refusing to have their fingerprints for mandatory registration as required by law. These legal aliens — of whom the majority were 3rd generation Koreans in Japan, believed that the similarity to South Korea's fingerprinting of foreign residents meant that they were being suspected of being North Korean enemy agents.

See "The Blue House Raid" and the reason the ROK started fingerprinting foreign residents in the earlier paragraphs.

Toshiki KAIFU inside the Japanese Diet

The Prime Minister of Japan at that time, 海部俊樹 {KAIFU Toshiki}, visited South Korea in 1991 and later agreed to eliminate the fingerprint requirement for Special Permanent Residents (特別永住者tokubetsu eijūsha; SPR) by January of 1993.

Next, they exempted regular Permanent Residents (永住者 {eijūsha}; PR). However, unlike Special Permanent Residents, a Permanent Resident was always a one time a non-Permanent Resident, meaning your fingerprint was already printed on your identification card. Even if you became a permanent resident, you'd have to wait until your card expired and you received a fresh one that contained neither a fingerprint nor your employer information nor a SoR expiration date printed on the front. Your ten fingerprints, however, would be removed from your file, even though your one left index finger remaining on your personal card.

Eventually, they exempted everybody from fingerprinting as part of the alien registration process in 1999.

Foreign children fifteen (15) and under have always been exempt from fingerprinting in Japan.

A few years afterwards, in 2003, the South Korean Minister of Justice began to have concerns about its country's fingerprinting process for foreigners; it abolished its system in 2004. However, for the purposes of terrorism prevention, they reinstated the fingerprinting of all foreigners at ports of entry in 2012.

The origins of digital fingerprinting at border control: 9/11

U.S. terminals are flexible regarding finger placement

After the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11th, 2001, America reformed and tightened its immigration checks at all ports of entry. One of the creations to come out of this was the US-VISIT system, a digital ink-less fingerprint scanning system (that also takes a face photo) that records and compares against a watch-list database of terrorists, criminals, and illegal immigrants in a few seconds. Although not in real time, the ten prints are then compared to a FBI list of criminals days later.

The system was initially an index finger system similar to what Japan currently uses, but they upgraded the system to all ten fingers (a three step scanning process using "slap fingerprint scanning") in 2009.

All non-U.S. citizens (including U.S. permanent residents) are required to use the US-VISIT system, with the following exceptions:

• Canadian and Mexican nationals entering from North American continent land borders
• children 13 years of age and younger and seniors 80 years and older
• diplomats and other special state-level personal and state formally invited guests

Unlike Japan and most other countries, the United States currently does not have a formal gated "exit process or system or checkpoint" for departing or leaving the country from most of its sea and air ports. However, laws are being passed to implement exit procedures at U.S. ports — including using fingerprint scanning for non U.S. nationals leaving the country (something that other countries do not do yet).

You don't have to pucker your lips for the camera

Japan soon followed America (November 20, 2007) with its own system, called J-VIS {ｼﾞｪｲﾋﾞｽ}, which is deployed in 27 of Japan's international airports. Japan was the second country in the world after America to deploy such a system. J-VIS (pronounced and sometimes spelled as "Ｊ−ＢＩＳ {Jei-bisu}") is similar to US-VISIT in that there is a camera (surrounded by a mirror so you can align your face) and an optical scanner that scans your two index fingers. The Japanese system compared to an initial database of 14,000 people from a ICPO ("Interpol") and a domestic list of people who had been deported and/or excluded from entry from Japan in the past of around 80,000 people.

All non-Japanese nationals (including permanent residents) are required to use the J-VIS system to enter (but not exit) Japan, with the following exceptions:

• Special Permanent Residents (特別永住者 {tokubetsu eijūsha})
• children 15 years of age and younger
• diplomats and other special state-level personal and state formally invited guests

Busted trying to fool Japanese immigration

Soon after its introduction, it was thought that the biometric machines of that time could be fooled with the use of false fingerprints (or by mutilating one's fingers). Additionally, some have tried to obtain false Japanese passports to avoid the fingerprinting requirements. In response, the machines were upgraded and immigration manual examination techniques were improved. Additionally, it is very difficult to forge a e-Passport (biometric passport), which contains a digitally encrypted/signed contact-less chip containing the passport's Page One details. As Japan's e-Passports were introduced in March 2006, all the old passports that don't contain this chip will have expired by 2016 (passports have a maximum validity of ten years), and it will be difficult for people to use false passports.

The old passports without chips will only be circulation for a few more years

Although many e-passports contain fingerprint data, Japan's passport chip currently only contain the digitized color passport photo for biometric identification.

People are caught and arrested for trying to circumvent the fingerprint biometric identification process every year.

Starting in August 2010, South Korea began implementing its own fingerprint scanning system for much of the same reasons that Japan uses it for: to prevent those forced to leave Korea from re-entering using a different passport (dual nationals) or via another form of changing identity.

Similar to both the United States and Japan:

• All non-nationals (including those foreign nationals with permanent resident status) must submit to biometric identification or be refused entry into the country
• Minors under the age of 18 are exempt from the process
• Diplomats and other special governmental level VIPs are exempt

The Republic of Korea estimated that approximately 2,000 people per year attempt to enter its country using changed/falsified papers/identities. It completed implementation in 2012.

Why do they do just two fingerprints and not all ten like the United States?

The reason they don't fingerprint all ten fingers is because they digital prints they take at the CIQ airport "waiting hall" area is because the scanned actually not currently compared to domestic law enforcement fingerprint records of criminals. In Japan, the biometric identification terminals at ports are used for two reasons:

• minor use: to compare against a small list of known international criminals and terrorists
• major use: to prevent a common immigration fraud technique called "double dipping" to prevent those who have been deported or refused entry from circumventing their exclusion order.

They do not do fingerprint scans for either Japanese nationals or Special Permanent Residents not because they don't believe that Japanese commit crime, but rather because Japanese nationals (natural born and naturalized) can't commit immigration fraud: they have the unconditional/unrevokable "right of abode" in Japan. Additionally, Special Permanent Residents, unlike all other types of foreign residents in Japan (including regular Permanent Residents), can't be deported except for national security reasons and high crimes like treason.

Additionally, how fingerprints are used and matched for biometric identification

The combination of digital photograph and fingerprints

The United States, Japan, and South Korea all take digital photographs as part of the biometric identification process, however, these photographs are not automatically verified against databases (yet). They are manually verified by the immigration inspectors by comparing them on the screen with the digital photograph stored in the passport's chip and/or the human in front of them.

What is "Double Dipping"?

Asian "double-dipping": in polite/formal
(family/close friends excepted) company,
use the opposite end of chopsticks
(or a dedicated pair of serving chopsticks)
to partake from a shared dish.

Double Dipping is an immigration fraud technique where an alien that has been deported, refused entrance into a country and sent home to the country of their nationality for a set exclusion period, does one of the following scams:

• legally changes their name (or uses legal or unofficial aliases) in their home country and then replaces their passport so the country can't correlate the new name with its immigration records that have dates associated with the old name.
• uses transliteration ambiguities between their name's native script and Latin/roman alphabet to create different versions of their name
• uses a separate passport with a different nationality (by having multiple nationalities), optionally with a different name but not necessary, so the country can't correlate the new identity (name + country + passport number) with the old identity on file.

"Double dipping" is slang that comes from the (considered unsanitary by many) act of taking a chip or other hors d'œuvre, dipping into a common shared sauce etc., taking a partial bite, then re-dipping that same piece of food that has already come in contact with your mouth into the same or another common-use liquid.

Aliens sometimes also use "double dipping" to hide the fact that they're doing a "visa run".

What is a "Visa Run"?

The stamp used with "visa runs"

A visa run is leaving the country before their Temporary Visitor (短期滞在 {tanki taizai}) Landing Permission (上陸許可 {jōriku kyoka}) Status (在留資格 {zairyū shikaku}; SoR) permission expires without properly renewing (because they're ineligible for renewal) and returning very soon to effectively reset the validity period of their "tourist visa", effectively turning it into a mid- to long-term "resident visa".

Whether or not a "visa run" is considered permissible or not depends on the judgement of the immigration officer: if they believe that the visa run is being done to circumvent the need to get a proper visa (for work or residence), they will most likely be denied entrance to Japan, detained until the first flight is available, then sent to the country of their nationality — usually at the visitor's expense.

"Visa Runs" were more common in 20th century, but they are much harder to get away with in the 21st century now that all countries' passports have a machine readable zone on the first page. The MRZ is printed in a font that is easily and readable by OCR technology, allows for speedy (even if there's a long queue) and accurate (no manual entry human operator input errors or typos of foreign names) single scan entry of all the pertinent details into a immigration computer database.

This means that the immigration computer keeps detailed entrance and exit dates in and out of Japan accurately associated with a particular passport, and the computer assists the inspecting officer by automatically alerting the officer on their computer monitor is the entrance/exit pattern to Japan looks like a "visa run" pattern. This eliminates the need to flip through the pages of the passport inspecting and comparing dates — a difficult an error-prone process.

In fact, these accurate digital records of your entrances and exits to Japan are available for self-examination for ¥300 and this official record is useful for completing your paperwork for naturalizing regarding your time in Japan.

The slang "visa run" was originally believed to have popularized by expats from Thailand, as their landing permissions were often for short periods (30 days or less) and it is a short a cheap day trip by bus from Bangkok to Cambodia and back.

For foreigners in Japan, the most common country to attempt a visa run with is South Korea, as it's usually both the closest and cheapest (air fare) from Japan.

Fingerprinting: not just for crime solving & prevention anymore

As an American in the nineties, I was already quite used to having my fingerprints "checked", so this was not a big deal to me:

• I was fingerprinted in order to work as a substitute teacher in public schools in the state of Virginia; to check to see if I had a criminal record or if I was a sex offender
• I was fingerprinted (and had to take a drug test) to work in finance on Wall Street in New York City. Funny story: they said that a history of financial crimes (embezzlement, theft, etc) would disqualify me, but other crimes would be evaluated case-by-case. I always wondered if murder was okay.
• I was fingerprinted by the U.S. government to work with sensitive classified information.

Of course, unlike being arrested where you can't "opt out" of being fingerprinted, I could have "opted out" of the fingerprinting, but "opting out" and "staying employed" at the same time was not an option. To choose not to submit to fingerprinting would mean having to settle (often for a less prestigious and less paying) form of employment.

Many American banks now require a thumbprint instead of a signature in one attempts to cash a cheque at a bank if they don't have an account at, as they haven't been verified or vetted.

Some parents in some American communities voluntarily register their children's fingerprints with law enforcement as a safety measure; if the child should go missing for whatever reason, the fingerprints on file will help law enforcement track and find the child.

A more artistic and less practical form of children's fingerprinting

Biometric identification fingerprints at the border for Expedited Immigration Clearance and Convenience

Everybody in the 21st century has this feature

In addition to using mandatory fingerprinting for non-nationals, many countries are also allowing voluntary opt-in biometric fingerprint identification registration for going through immigration faster. Some of the systems (such as America's Global Entry program or Australia's SmartGate system) are cross-compatible with or prerequisites for other countries. All of them require a Machine-Readable Passport (MRP) or a MRTD (Machine Readable Travel Document) with a standardized MRZ (Machine Readable Zone) for automatic intervention. A few of the systems require e-Passports or other identity cards with smart chips in them. Some of them use or used to use human eye iris scanning instead, in combination, or in lieu of fingerprints.

After registering (which may include submitting your bio-data such as face photo, fingerprint(s), or iris scan if they aren't already encoded in your travel document's chip), you go through the gates by:

1. Scanning the part of your travel identity document that has the MRZ or chip (contact or contactless) at a station that may or may not be manned
2. Confirming your identity against your registered bio-identification, which is usually:
   • two fingerprints
   • a retina scan
   • a facial photo (which may or may not be facially compared and recorded)
3. Depending on the system and your circumstances, you may be forced (or it may be optional) to get your travel document stamped or receive some other sort of paper verification of entering/exiting the country.

The whole process takes anywhere from five to twelve seconds, and the lines for the automated gates are almost always shorter because not everybody registers / opts-in and each person is processed quicker.

Japan's gates require a 15m registration

Japan: 自動ゲート

Japanese nationals and registered foreign residents of Japan eligible. It is free.

United States: Global Entry

U.S. citizens, lawful U.S. permanent residents, Dutch citizens, South Korean citizens, Mexican nationals eligible. It is $100 for five years.

United Kingdom: Registered traveller scheme

A replacement for the now closed IRIS program, those from Japan, the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand can use the UK/EEA channels at Gatwick or Heathrow airports. You currently must be over 18 years old and visit the United Kingdom four or more times per year to qualify. It is free.

Australia: SmartGate

Australians, New Zealanders, U.S. Global Entry participants, United Kingdom passports with certain restrictions, and PRC e-passports in 2015) over the age of 16. 

Canada: NEXUS

Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and U.S. Global Entry members. It is $50 for five years.

Hong Kong: e-道 (e-channel)

Hong Kong (香港 {Honkon}) residents, Macao (澳門 {Makao}) residents, and some foreign residents of Hong Kong, and some non-residents under certain conditions.

Mexico: Viajero Confiable

Mexican citizens and U.S. Global Entry members. It is $1,372 (Mexican pesos).

New Zealand: SmartGate

Australians, New Zealanders, U.S. Global Entry members, and United Kingdom passports with certain restrictions.

South Korea: Smart Entry Service (SES)

U.S. Global Entry members, ROK nationals and some foreign permanent residents under certain conditions

Taiwan: e-Gate

Taiwanese nationals and registered foreign residents of Taiwan

Thailand: Auto-Gates

Thai nationals only

I can confirm through personal experience that the fingerprint databases used by Japan's automated gates and the fingerprints used by the J-VIS system for visitors is not interconnected or merged.

Biometrics for Automated Teller Machines

The middle finger lacks symbolism in Japan

The use of bioidentity (生体認証 {seitai ninshō}) to supplement the authentication process with Japanese ATMs has been available for some time now. Often your middle finger is scanned in combination with a PIN code.

Unfortunately, these systems are not adopted overseas outside Japan, so if you want a cash/debit/credit card that works in countries other than Japan, you usually have to get a "international" card that lacks mandatory biometric controls.

Biometrics for personal electronics and devices

Some Japan-only smartphones have fingerprint sensors

Biometric fingerprint sensors are appearing on everything from door locks to personal computers and laptops & now even smartphones. Often times they're not even an optional accessory anymore and are built into the device. Any device that has could need a password or key to protect personal and private data inside it has the potential to be augmented with a fingerprint reader.

Non-Japanese are usually the least resistant to this form of fingerprint use because the fingerprint data is usually stored locally in your personal possession, and is not stored by a government or third-party. (However, corporate systems often store employee and customer fingerprints in a private cloud).

Even before the iPhone 5s (which has a built in fingerprint sensor and sold very well in Japan), Japan has incorporated fingerprint authentication into many of its electronic devices that were designed for the domestic consumer market: feature phones and laptops. This suggests that Japanese too are relatively less adverse to using fingerprints for personal security and protection of their data — as well as convenience (in the cases where fingerprints are allowed to be used instead of passwords or other forms of identification).