In a incredibly un-Japanese like fashion, people are protesting the new fingerprinting policy for all foreigners entering Japan. I'm quite excited about this. Although many of the protesters seem to be "gaijin" themselves, I do see a few Japanese protesters.
"It's an expression of Japanese xenophobia. Japan is using this system as a tool to control foreigners. For the past few years, the government has been associating foreigners with things like crime and terrorism," said Sonoko Kawakami, campaign coordinator for Amnesty International Japan
The main reason that I'm excited is that it seems that the recent exposure of the blatant corruption in the Diet has urged the Japanese to finally care about their government. In a way, Shinzo Abe was a good thing for Japan, he finally broke the flood gates of participatory democracy for the Japanese.
To be honest many "first world" countries are adopting similar policies. The issue of globalization will rest heavily on how countries choose to weigh state security and open borders.
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