The 2-Belo wrote:
> Someone I know advanced the theory that the only reason Japan's doing it is
> because the US is (with US-VISIT, which is even more invasive in that they scan
> all ten fingers). 

I thought it was widely held as the main reason for introducing
the fingerprinting.

> Since the US implemented the new "even people who come from
> visa waiver countries still have to apply for a bullshit permit over the
> internet that takes 72 hours to clear" thing on Jan. 12, it's only a matter of
> time before some other stupid control is put in place here as well.

Quite funny really. It waddles like a visa, and it quacks like a visa,
but it's NOT a visa because it was agreed not to require visas from
certain people.

Not that the US is alone in bureaucratic hypocracy. Australia requires
visas from everyone except New Zealanders. In the tit-for-tat world
of visa waivers that meant we had to apply for visas for practically
everywhere. Depending on country, this ranged from relatively
painless (e.g. Japan) to a pain in the arse (e.g. USA, France.)
No-one liked this, the travel and tourism industries mounted a
campaign, and the immigration bureaucrats relaxed a scintilla,
coming up with a system wherein a visa is issued automatically
when a travel agent arranges air tickets. Hardly a visa waiver, but
it was enough for Japan, France, etc. to reciprocate and drop the
visa requirement. These days many people book their tickets directly
with airlines, so they have to get their own visa. Hardly a visa
waiver, and I think it's only a matter of time before we go back on'the
visa-required list.

-- 
Jim Breen        http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/
Clayton School of Information Technology,
Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia
ジム・ブリーン@モナシュ大学