Kate’s Quests

After a few days off line due to internet and software troubles, I’m back! And back to posting regularly. I started this last week, but saved it as a draft right before the big mess. Here you go.

This topic has come up several times this week so I thought I’d write a bit about it. What got me started was an article that I found on the BBC Teaching English website. Often when I have a lesson, I’ll do a bit about what’s going on in the news. These articles are great for our lessons since they add new vocabulary and we get to actually talk about something current instead of just talking about grammar and other tedious things. So, this past Tuesday I had a lesson in which we talked about the new biometric visas required for foreign entry into the U.K. I explained to my student that fingerprinting was necessary for foreigners to enter both the U.S. and Japan as well. In the U.S., non-residents have had two fingers scanned on entry since 2004. And they are now starting to roll out the ten digit scanners in select airports, which bring along their own costs and benefits (the story about the guy whose fingerprints were misidentified and thus spent 43 days in prison or the guy whose prints were wrongly assigned to a convicted murderer scares the hell out of me). But I digress.

Anyway, my student had no idea that her own country required the fingerprinting of foreigners. She was also unaware of the ID card that foreigners are forced to carry at all times (and can be subject to sporadic police checks). Apparently the checks have become less frequent by the local police, but it can and still does happen. As a S.O.F.A. (status of forces agreement) sponsored individual in Japan, neither of these practices apply to me.

Then, later on in the week I came across Jason’s blog post about crime in Japan (which is extremely interesting, btw). Jason brings up a lot of interesting stats on the increase of crime and how the media keep touting the increase of crime by foreigners and how it’s such a problem. And I definitely think the inclusion of offenses like traffic tickets and the like are totally crazy. But, the Japanese are totally different from us and even though they are so international, they seem much less exposed to other cultures than Americans are. Americans have to deal with others from other areas so often that we’re somewhat forced to deal, but not so in Japan. I know I still get started at openly when traveling. My neighbor often warns me not to leave the house unlocked at any time due to the “foreigners” burglarizing the area – mostly Pakistani’s. I don’t know where she gets her “info” and I suspect it’s extremely false since in the year and a half I’ve lived here, the only place I’ve ever seen anyone of Indian or Pakistani descent is working in an Indian restaurant.

And in while I don’t want to defend the Japanese media for touting the giant increase of foreign crime, I wonder if that isn’t because of the big headline crimes. Sure there are drunken fights and DUI’s, but it’s the violent attacks. A few years ago a sailor here brutally attacked an elderly woman for a small amount of money. And then Monday there was another rape. In Okinawa a U.S. marine allegedly raped a young girl, which echoes the rape in 1995 which almost got the military kicked out of Okinawa. It definitely reflects badly on us, but they are pretty infrequent events (considering all the crime in America). I talked to another student about it on Friday and she agreed that while it was a shame and terrible, that Japan needs the U.S. military here in order to protect them from China and Korea. She definitely does not want to see us leave. I wonder if that is a popular sentiment.

I also came across this post where the author delves into how the police can pretty much do what they want. It just seems like such a paradox to me. They are terrified of foreigners and how “much crime they bring with them,” and yet the police can do pretty much whatever they want. They can fingerprint foreigners, keep them ID’d, keep them in prison for indefinite periods of time, question them at their discretion and whatnot.

Could it be the insecurity of not being able to defend themselves internationally that fuels the paranoia of being able to defend themselves against foreigners in their homeland, or is it just racism? I honestly don’t know.