above-mentioned conditions, the immigration inspector will determine a status of residence and the period of stay, and affix a seal of verification for landing onto the foreign national's passport.

The provision of biometric information (fingerprints and a facial photograph) at the time of the entry (landing) examination became mandatory through the 2006 amendment of the Immigration Control Act (enforced on November 20, 2007).

## (2) Hearing

If a foreign national, who has filed an application for landing, does not provide his or her personal identification information to the immigration officer at the port of entry or departure, or is found, as a result of the landing examination by the immigration inspector, not to conform to the conditions for landing, the case will be assigned to a special inquiry officer $ ^{(*1)} $ , who will hold a hearing (Article 7, paragraph (4), Article 9, paragraph (5), and Article 10, paragraph (1) of the Immigration Control Act).

If the special inquiry officer finds, as a result of the hearing, that the foreign national conforms to the conditions for landing (limited to cases where the foreign national is found to come under foreign nationals who are exempt from the obligation of providing personal identification information and cases where the foreign national provides his or her personal identification information to the special inquiry officer with regard to cases assigned to the special inquiry officer owing to the foreign national refusing to provide his or her personal identification information to the immigration inspector), the foreign national will immediately be granted landing permission (Article 10, paragraphs (7) and (8) of the Immigration Control Act).

## (3) Filing of an Objection

On the other hand, a foreign national who is found not to conform to the conditions for landing may either accept the finding or file an objection. In the case of the former, the foreign national will be ordered to depart from Japan. In the latter case, the foreign national may file an objection with the Minister of Justice within three days after receipt of the notice $ (^{*2}) $ (Article 10, paragraphs (10) and (11), and Article 11, paragraph (1) of the Immigration Control Act).

If the Minister of Justice receives an objection from a foreign national whom a special inquiry officer has found not to conform to the conditions for landing, the Minister will decide whether the objection is based on reasonable grounds or not; that is, whether the foreign national conforms to the conditions for landing or not. When the Minister decides that the objection has reasonable grounds, the foreign national will immediately be granted landing permission. When however, the Minister decides the objection is without reasonable grounds, the foreign national will be ordered to depart from Japan (Article 11, paragraphs (3), (4) and (6) of the Immigration Control Act). If a foreign national who has been ordered to depart from Japan does not depart without delay, he or she will be enforced the deportation procedures (Article 24, paragraph 5-2 of the Immigration Control Act).

The Minister of Justice may, even when an objection is found to be without reasonable grounds, give special permission for landing to a foreign national in such cases as when the foreign national has received re-entry permission, the foreign national entered Japan under the