Welcome To Our Country! Please Deposit Your DNA Here

It was my first time to get fingerprinted and photographed when I went back to Japan a few weeks ago. It was a new immigration policy designed to increase security, and I suppose it does work. It didn't take up that much more time than normal getting through the lines, but I could see how if there were lots of people trying to enter Japan it could be a big time suck. Then again I've stood in line-ups where Mexicans, who don't speak English, were trying to enter the U.S. with only one passport for three people and two little kids without I.D. who weren't their own children, so there are lots of incidents that can lead to a long wait.

My lovely wife (who is a Canadian Permanent Resident but a Japanese citizen) had to do the same thing while transferring in Detroit on her way both to and from Japan. The immigration official on our way back (who was courteous and polite - he must be new) said that they would be upgrading from a two finger scan to a ten finger scan. I've got to think that if you can somehow change or fake your two index fingerprints then you deserve to sneak into a country. Adding the other eight fingers doesn't seem to make much of a difference in my mind and if you could somehow fake all ten fingers (like a James Bond villain - a sander and a bath wash of acid) then you deserve to get into the country.