Awareness

Re-Entry Japan, just like the coverage of biometrics screening introduction in Japan, is loosing steam. Querying the Japanese news over Google News yield a trickle of reference to the issue, like this minor article in a regional newspaper worrying about the image of Japan to tourists and the apparent contradiction of promoting Yokoso!Japan at the same time. It may be a wrong concern. Figures will tell if brake at the gates will inhibit the surge to visit Japan.

Loosing steam. Yesterday, I had a professional appointment with ship captains, Japanese and foreigners. These people certainly know about showing their ID and credentials to port authorities. As one affable captain said to me, the first times, you feel bruised in your mind, but then you get used to it. I do not believe that biometrics as the first encounter to a foreign country is sensible enough to determine the way one is to feel about the country afterwards. They don't rip index skin at Narita. This is in the end pure sentimentalism I do not vote for. For re-entrants, with mix family members on top of that, the issue is different and still not to be attached to self-centered sentimentalism. Asking aloud the question about what to tell your children is also a convenient way to get rid of the question, that is the reflection at all. Some anonymous moroon will lash back with the standard flash definitive arrogance about what life is to be : enjoy and drink more. Tolerance spelled indifference is a powerful weapon for security obsessed states and the economics at stake. It plays well with entertainment and mass manicheism : if you not cool, you uncool. Reality is more complex, meaning spicy. The "what to tell the child" means in effect what to discus about within the family, or how to reverse the situation by discussing among family members on all these things and how they do matter. A lesson in media deconstruction is the first theme that comes to my mind and the need for awareness.