Tuesday June 23
 
10:36
 
The ‘IC You’ Card

I hate having to carry around an “Alien Registration Card” which includes my full address – on top of burglary risk I have the continual daily risk that should my keys and wallet be lost together, thieves have a direct path to my home. Paranoid? My apartment had already been burgled once in Japan – I don’t want to make it any easier.

Now we have the new gaijin card. Yeah!

That’s still not the worst of it. I mentioned that embedded computer chip. The ZRK is a “smart card.” Most places worldwide issue smart cards for innocuous things like transportation and direct debit, and you have to swipe the card on a terminal to activate it. Carrying one is, at least, optional.

Not in Japan. Although the 2005 proposal suggested foreign “swiping stations” in public buildings, the technology already exists to read IC cards remotely. With Japan’s love of cutting-edge gadgets, data processing will probably not stop at the swipe. The authorities will be able to remotely scan crowds for foreigners.

In other words, the IC chip is a transponder — a bug.

Now imagine these scenarios: Not only can police scan and detect illegal aliens, but they can also uncover aliens of any stripe. It also means that anyone with access to IC chip scanners (they’re going cheap online) could possibly swipe your information. Happy to have your biometric information in the hands of thieves?

Moreover, this system will further encourage racial profiling. If police see somebody who looks alien yet doesn’t show up on their scanner (such as your naturalized author, or Japan’s thousands of international children), they will more likely target you for questioning — as in: “Hey, you! Stop! Why aren’t you detectable?”

No!

What does “not deemed to be acting like spouses” mean anyway?

And what’s Juki Net? Is it like Mixi for music? Are all gaijins going to be “required” to join Juki-boxu-net and download Japanese J-shit-pop every week?

At least laws here are written down, unlike Korea. Don’t get me started on Korean immigration.