A short time ago, I made a post about information I received about the fact that foreigners had to be fingerprinted and be photographed on entering Japan.
Now I have found an official announcement about it in a Dutch newspaper, which provides more clearness on the fact why they started using this new rule.

The main reason is to keep terrorists outside. The Japanese say that, because they support the Americans in their invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq, that they might be the target of terrorist attacks. Therefore they need this new rule. Besides fingerprinting, they are demanding a full passenger list of every plane or boat that will arrive in Japan. These lists are compared with the international database of terror suspects and with a national list of criminals. People showing up in any of these lists are being deported.

The fingerprints are saved for a yet undetermined period, although the Japanese government isn't telling how long they will be saved. Apart from kids, younger than 16, Diplomats and some foreigners with a permanent visa, everyone is obliged to follow the new rules.

In short: Everyone, older than 16 (with a few exceptions), who is entering Japan, on a datum later than 20 November, is obliged to ink his fingers and put on his best smile on a photograph in order to enter Japan. This new rule has to keep terrorism outside of Japan.

Stressed-out Japanese too busy to sleep

Long gone are the days when people went to bed when it got dark. Now, Japanese have stopped sleeping, screams Josei Seven (10/25).

Surveys by a research body associated with national broadcaster NHK show that in the 1960s, Japanese slept for an average of 8 hours, 13 minutes, but that had dropped under 8 hours by the following decade and in 2006 stood at just 7 hours, 22 minutes per night.

Masajiro Inoue, a Tokyo Medical and Dental University professor and Japan's foremost expert on sleeping, blames the changes on the '70s.

"During the '70s, which were the tail end of the country's postwar economic miracle period, there was a sense that the more you worked, the richer you would become in the end. Men in particular chose to work instead of sleep and people started to hold little regard for sleep from that time on," the sleep expert tells Josei Seven.

With men getting back from work late, women waiting at home for them were also skipping their snoozes. And the trend gave birth to the 24-hour society, where it's now common for such establishments as convenience stores, family restaurants, fast food outlets and others of that ilk to stay open all day because there is sufficient demand for their services to justify them doing so.

Nowhere is the Japanese trend away from sleep more evident than on the small screen. Video Research Ltd., a ratings company, notes that back in 1982, only 8.5 percent of households were watching TV at 2 o'clock in the morning. By 2006, the figure was 24.2 percent.

Networks have been partly to blame.

"Changes in viewing patterns have come about perfectly for networks, which can use late night scheduling for shows that would normally have trouble attracting sponsors or are being screened on a test basis," TV columnist Takeshi Maruyama tells Josei Seven. "That in turn has created the impression that the best shows are all on at night, which is a perfect match for viewers now staying up late anyway."

The early hours of the morning have also proved a boon for TV shopping channels.

"Our products sell better around midnight than at any other time of the day," a spokesman for major TV retailer Jupiter Shop Channel tells the women's weekly. "Really popular items are often sold out by 2 or 3 in the morning."

Staying awake longer is not all good news, though. Sleep expert Inoue elaborates.

"Sleep, for adults and children, plays the role of managing the brain. The first thing a lack of sleep does is affect the way the brain works. The brain affects the way our whole body works. If you're sleepy, you're going to feel tired, listless and lacking motivation," Inoue says, adding that a lack of sleep also raises blood pressure. "It also strains the heart. If there is no time when you rest and take it easy, the pressure on the body is enormous. Sleep deprivation can have tremendously adverse effects on the body."

And Tsunehiro Saito, head of the Good Sleep Clinic in Tokyo, argues that the effects of not sleeping can be even greater when it comes to kids, a growing number of who are also becoming night owls.

"Children used to be in bed asleep by 9 o'clock every night. Now, though, it's common for them to be up until 1 or 2 in the morning, then have to get up again at 8 so they can go to school," the sleep doctor tells Josei Seven. "If they're that tired, there's no way they'd be able to remember everything they're being taught. A lack of sleep can be awful for children in so many different ways, harming their immune systems and hurting them mentally and physically." (By Ryann Connell)

（Mainichi Japan） October 17, 2007

An 18-year-old girl was surprisingly crowned "Japan's best bottom" babe at Triumph International's "Show Me Your Sloggi" Japan contest held on Tuesday in Tokyo after a freak accident scorched her rump days before the contest.

"I always take care of my bottom, but I'm embarrassed to show it today because I burned it by sitting on a hair iron the other day," Kaho Watanabe, clad in pink baby doll lingerie, said in her short self-promotion spiel.

Sloggi is a casual brand produced by leading underwear manufacturer Triumph International. The company accepted photo entries of people's underwear-clad backsides for its worldwide contest between August and the middle of September. Viewers could vote for their favorite bottoms online.

Besides posing in Sloggi bras and panties, ten contestants in the Japan contest, who passed the preliminary selection out of 112 online entries, showed off their skills such as dancing, playing an instrument, and even singing a traditional enka song in a skimpy S&M type of costume.

"I can't believe I was named 'Japan's best bottom' with my burned bum. I promise I will recover before going to Germany," Watanabe said as she expressed her hopes for the world Sloggi competition scheduled on Oct. 31 in Munich.
(Akiko Uematsu, Mainichi Daily News)

Article and full photoshoot

I received this information in a message today, I don't think it will have much impact on travelers, except for that they have to colour their fingers, and friendly smile to the camera. It's just an extra check-up on imigrants.



Subject: Japan Announces Changes to Immigration Procedures for Foreign Nationals

Dear customer
The Immigration Bureau of Japan has announced changes to landing examination procedures for foreign nationals entering Japan.
Effective Friday, Nov. 23, 2007, all visitors arriving into Japan will be fingerprinted and digitally photographed. Exemptions from this process include:
Persons under the age of 16.
Special status permanent residents.
Individuals engaged in activities that fall under the status of residence of
"diplomat" or "official government business."

Any foreign visitors refusing to submit to the new immigration procedures will be denied entry to Japan and ordered to leave. No changes have been announced to visa requirements to enter Japan.

At this time no further information is available on the potential impact of these new procedures to travellers to Japan. Our Global Communications team continues to monitor the situation and will provide updates as available.

Japanese TV: you could probably say that when something hasn't shown up on it sometime, it hasn't been thought of yet.

Japanese kids: As a people the Japanese dote on them. Childhood is seen as a time of supreme, blissful innocence, and perhaps more importantly, a time of freedom before the onerous duties of adulthood are imposed. Put them together and ...

... you get a gameshow where, in each program, the members of the panel place bets on potential winners of generally off-the-wall contests - this week the contest being between crawling babies!

How fast can a baby crawl across 10 meters? And how can he or she be made to do so?

These are questions that you will see answered on this clip: excerpts of highlights from the seven elimination rounds, and, of course, the final championship.

Selectively subtitled in English by JapanVisitor.

Boo boo baa baa! (That's "Goo goo gaa gaa!" in Japanese.)