The Atlantic Monthly reporter James Fallows has a short article about his arrival at Tokyo airport, mentioning that "Today's time spent in the passport clearance line for foreigners at Narita: 1 hour, 30 minutes.". He is smart enough not to simply focus on the inconvenience of the procedure, and states that "there is no getting around the insult factor of having entry to the country be like getting booked into County Jail". I can hardly imagine queuing 1.5 hours at passport clearance. 1.5 hours including waiting time for luggage that do not appear, yes. But for passport checking, this goes beyond everything. How many planes are landing in the meantime with several hundreds passengers flocking to the crowded gates. How do people in the queues react? No grumbling at all? no noisy sounds of exasperation? Or was it that Mr. Fallows was unfortunate to bump into a worst day at the gates? So many questions, so few echos from the lines.
1.12.07
Queuing
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Have you seen this from the Asahi shimbun about a link between Japan and US defense entities?
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Yamada made shady payments to U.S. group
12/01/2007
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Defense contractor Yamada Corp. paid $900,000 (about 100 million yen) to a group linked to an individual who connects defense industries and politicians in Japan and the United States, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.
Naoki Akiyama, who manages the Japan-U.S. Center for Peace and Cultural Exchange, denied any involvement in the payments in a written response to The Asahi Shimbun.
Yamada, whose head office in Tokyo was searched Friday in a Defense Ministry scandal, did not respond to inquiries by the newspaper.
Documents obtained by The Asahi Shimbun showed that Yamada paid money to a U.S. organization related to Anzen Hosho Kenkyujo (national security research institute), a group headed by Akiyama, in connection to a project in Japan to dispose of poison gas shells.
Sources said the money came from a slush fund held in a number of bank accounts managed by Yamada's U.S. subsidiary, called Yamada International Corp.
However, $300,000 was paid for services that may have never been extended, according to the documents.
In addition, $400,000 intended for the U.S. entity related to Akiyama ended up in the bank account of Motonobu Miyazaki, then a Yamada executive who has recently been arrested on suspicion of embezzlement and bribery.
Prosecutors are apparently looking into the payments as part of their expanding investigation into Miyazaki, 69, and former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya, 63, who was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of receiving bribes, sources said.
Members of the Japan-U.S. Center for Peace and Cultural Exchange include Japanese and U.S. politicians who lobby for defense industries and have expertise in national security issues.
Miyazaki, in fact, had served as a director at the Japan-U.S. Center for Peace and Cultural Exchange until last year.
The payments stem from the 2000 discovery of poison gas shells from World War II on the seabed at Kanda port in Fukuoka Prefecture.
The former Defense Agency awarded the project to salvage and dispose of the shells to a major steelmaker for the first and second phases of the project in fiscal 2004 and 2005, respectively.
The steel company hired Yamada as a subcontracting agent to find American divers for the project.
According to the documents, Yamada's plan was to pay a total of $1.3 million.
The papers also said a U.S. company related to Yamada would pay the money to the U.S. organization affiliated with Anzen Hosho Kenkyujo.
The money flow is not entirely clear, but the documents showed that $600,000 was paid to the Anzen Hosho Kenkyujo-related U.S. organization, while $400,000 was transferred to a bank account personally held by Miyazaki.
In addition, Yamada's subcontract in the poison gas shell disposal project was canceled before completion of the second phase in fiscal 2005.
But the documents showed that Yamada paid $300,000 to the U.S. entity related to Anzen Hosho Kenkyujo in connection with the third phase of the project in fiscal 2006.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport took over the work for the third and fourth phases. The fourth phase is currently under way.
Anzen Hosho Kenkyujo is, in effect, the same organization as the Congressional National Security Research Group, for which Akiyama serves as secretary-general, according to sources.
The Congressional National Security Research Group and the Japan-U.S. Center for Peace and Cultural Exchange jointly sponsor biannual meetings of Japanese and U.S. lawmakers on national security issues.
Former Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma and other Diet members serve as directors at the Japan-U.S. Center for Peace and Cultural Exchange.
Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, a former defense chief, and Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba had been directors at the Japan-U.S. Center for Peace and Cultural Exchange.(IHT/Asahi: December 1,2007)
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Quoting the whole article for your convenience but you might want to put up just a link to asahi shimbun, if you want to post it.
There is no doubt that fear and security are a gigantic market with many stakeholders and the usual under the surface ripping happening and elsewhere.
Ain't no doubt about it, Mr Dolan,it seems like you will have a pleasant time to help the local authorities to fight this so-called terrorism.
"As an American long-time resident [of Japan], it’s embarrassing to hear the level of whining and complaining from a small, vocal group of immature foreign transplants over the new ID procedures even before they are implemented (“Bad Impressions,” The Last Word, October 26). The US and others already have this system, so Japan will now be able to access the international criminal and terrorist database. This is about security (duh) and not about inconveniencing these ignorant complainers. Just look at the problems the UK and Europe now have because of their prior lax immigration controls. Whatever little extra time spent is well worth it, as passport/visa fraud is now far too easy. To those who can’t comprehend or deal with this simple fact, either go home or don’t come. Wake up and grow up!—"
Time to grow up, time to reveal the very innver of ourselves, time to, time to.
Time to think twice.Time to have a seat.
So what does the above comment so predictably boil down to? The same old grumblings of the gaijin snob; "I've been here longer than you, and if you don't like it then leave." While I'm sure the poster would gladly crawl naked over broken glass if it would only mean all those other pesky gaijin would leave him to live out his little fantasy as Japan's lone foreigner, what we have here is a real problem with real, concrete counter arguments. It can't be dismissed with a simple "America does it, so it must be OK", nor are the hundreds of people rightly disgusted by this going to 1) shut up 2) go away.
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