Japan to take fingerprints, photos of foreigners
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Japan is to fingerprint and photograph foreigners entering the country from next month in an anti-terrorism policy that is stirring anger among foreign residents and human rights activists.
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Japan says it will allow UN nuclear inspectors to examine its earthquake-hit Kashiwazaki plant.
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Japan&#39;s foreign minister said Thursday his country would likely slap sanctions on North Korea to punish it for neglecting Tokyo&#39;s request for a thorough investigation into Japanese kidnapping victims.
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The U.S. government will take prints   of all 10 fingers of foreigners entering the United States and   compare them with those found at sites with ties to terrorists,   the country's security chief said on Friday.
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Turning the tables on Tokyo, North Korea  has called on Japan to investigate the case of one of its  nationals who went missing in 1991 while working in Russia,  saying it presumed Japan had abducted him.
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Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Tuesday he will press his country's case in Washington this week for reducing what he called the "the excessive burden" placed on Okinawa by the presence of U.S. troops.
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Britain said on Tuesday it plans to force non-European foreign nationals to register identity details such as fingerprints and iris scans from 2008.
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Japanese negotiators are to begin fresh talks on their nationals allegedly abducted by Pyongyang.
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Foreigners entering the United States in three cities were fingerprinted, photographed and subjected to background checks Monday in a test of a program that will eventually
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Tokyo plans to set up three-dimensional cameras across the city in the world's most advanced system yet to pinpoint terrorist suspects, a local official said Friday.
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Japan plans to issue a visa for former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui to visit this year, a government spokesman said Thursday, a decision that could further fray Tokyo's relations with China.
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North Korea will conduct a thorough investigation into the kidnapping of Japanese citizens, a departure from its stand that the divisive issue has been settled, a source with ties to Pyongyang said on Thursday.
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(InfoWorld) - Germany will store digital fingerprints in addition to digital photos in passports as one of several biometric security measures planned toÂ fight organized crime and international terrorism. All new passports issued from November will store two digital fingerprints in an embedded chip, which, since 2005, includes a digital photo, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior said Friday. While fingerprints will be stored exclusively in passport chips, photos will continue to be saved additionally in databases of local authorities. A new amendment gives police and other authorized government officials online access to these databases. Unlike several other countries in Europe and abroad, Germany has no central database for photos or fingerprints of all citizens or for registered foreigners living in the country, and currently lacks plans to establish one, according to a ministry spokeswoman. Centralized data, including photos and fingerprints, exists only for people registered with the police for criminal activity, and for applicants for German visas. Only readers equipped with a new cryptographic protocol can read the passports including both photos and fingerprints. The Extended Access Control system connects the chip and the reader by establishing a secure communications channel over a distance of 10 centimeters to 20 centimeters. Moves by the German government to digitize increased levels of personal data and link databases among authorities have led to an outcry by some groups, including federal and state data privacy commissioners. At a meeting in DÃ¼sseldorf on Friday, the commissioners criticized the government's programs that amass personal data, including telephone records, and its plans to give greater power to police officials to monitor terrorists and other criminals online by allowing them to hack into computers. In 2008, the German government plans new ID cards for all citizens with the same biometric features, according to the spokeswoman. "There are three primary reasons to issue biometric ID cards: to avoid false IDs, strengthen the identification process and also offer an authorization possibility for services such as online purchases," she said. By 2010, Germany hopes to have a new central database containing core data about each citizen and registered inhabitant of the country, according to the spokeswoman. The data includes name, birthday and address but will not contain a photo or fingerprints, she said. In February, the government passed a law allowing security officials in the country to create theÂ largest and most comprehensive pool of personal dataÂ ever amassed in the country. The databases of nearly 40 different agencies, including the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), are now being linked to allow authorities to run searches on suspected individuals and retrieve information within minutes. An expanded index file is being created for suspected terrorists. The file will contain the person's name, bank account number, telephone number, e-mail address, driver's license information and other data, including the names of companies, organizations and other parties associated with the person and linked to terrorist groups. Since the start of this week, law enforcement officials in Germany and Austria have electronic access to each other's criminal fingerprint databases. Since 2006, the countries have shared their DNA databases as one of several measures agreed by some European Union nations under the Treaty of PrÃ¼m in 2005. Â
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Japan will look again at the facts behind its wartime use of sex slaves, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday, the first step towards a potential revision of a landmark apology.
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Japan will start lending to foreign visitors personal digital assitants (PDAs) with travel information and translation services in a test program on ways to promote tourism.
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Japan sees first Travel, Mobile Media Companions
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American movie star Tom Cruise cemented his ties with Japan on Wednesday, becoming the first foreign actor to have his handprint earmarked for a place on a central Tokyo square resembling Hollywood's Walk of Fame. "I'm really honored to be doing this today. I feel I have a very special relationship with Japanese audiences," said Cruise, who starred in "The Last Samurai," a movie set in 19th century Japan.