From: smittie@csulb.edu (Smittie)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Fingerprinting Gaijin
Date: 18 Nov 92 19:50:22 GMT
Organization: Cal State Long Beach

>Damn fucking Dwight Joe, don't dare to say those Koreans and descendents
>are whining regarding treatment they receive from Japanese government/
>society. As usual Dwight Joe comes with tape recorder like this, but the
>case of those Koreans and descendents and others taken to Japan in similar
>circumstances is completely different than any other aliens in Japan.
>god damn Dwight Joe cu lover never quits so neither do I

Let's see if we can't turn the beginnings of yet another flamewar into a
learning experience for those who don't already know.

I trust that any errors I make in the following explanation will be calmly
corrected by those more knowledgable than myself.

The Japanese government applies its immigration laws to people of Korean decent
who are born in Japan, some to parents who were also born in Japan. It is my
understanding that Japan-born-Koreans (JBK for brevity, if this offenses
anyone, my apologies in advance)  protest every aspect of being treated like
foreigners in the only country they have ever known. The most widely publicized
and vocal part of that protest is against the fingerprinting. At some point
other gaijin began join in the protest against fingerprinting. This was
intended as a sign of solidarity with the JBK. Since then many foreigners have
protested fingerprinting for a variety of other reasons, the most common of
which is "fingerprinting me is to treat me as a criminal" or something similar.
-----------------
My opinions:
While I do not believe that every country should adopt a policy similar to
America's where anyone born in this country is automatically a citizen of this
country I do believe that Japan should give special consideration to the JBK in
light of the circumstances by which they came to be in Japan. I believe that
JBK are quite correct in their protest against being treated like foreigners.

While it is technically possible for JBK to become Japanese citizens for those
whose ties are to North Korea it is all but impossible. Since there are no
diplomatic ties between North Korea and Japan, there is no way for JBK to get
the required documents from North Korea. Hence in many cases these people
cannot even leave Japan since they have no passport and have no means of
getting a passport.

I personally do not mind being fingerprinted in Japan. My wife was
fingerprinted in the process of getting her green card and a cursory check
indicates that most industrialized countries also fingerprint aliens. To a
large extent I am of the belief that if you are going to go to a country not
your own to live, you should be willing to be subject to the laws of that
country. Where those laws are unreasonable I think you have a right to protest.
Fingerprinting is not, to me, unreasonable.

Mr. Fester and Mr. Harkcom will probably have something to say about this since
we've had this discussion before and will all ended up on different sides of
the fence then.

smittie
--
                             Tada mono de ha nai
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