This post is about an issue that pertains to all of Japan, not just Kumamoto.

I suspect that many non-Japanese readers of this page have been told that you are required to show your passport when you stay at a hotel or inn. Indeed, this article says “Japanese law requires hotels to check and keep copies of foreigners’ passports” and many hotel staff seem to interpret the law (or what they have been told about the law) as applying to all foreigners, regardless of whether you are here for a few days or have lived here for decades. Did you know, however, that the law only says that you need to submit a passport (or, by extension, residency card) if you don’t have an address in Japan?

In an old article about this issue, Arudo Debito translated the wording as follows:

“If the lodger is a foreigner without an address in Japan, (hotels must record) passport number and nationality.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2005/03/08/issues/creating-laws-out-of-thin-air/

The Japanese law reads as follows:

旅館業法施行規則第四条の二　法第六条第一項に規定する宿泊者名簿に記載すべき事項は、宿泊者の氏名、住所及び職業のほか、次に掲げる事項とする。一　宿泊者が日本国内に住所を有しない外国人であるときは、その国籍及び旅券番号

http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/S23/S23F03601000028.html

Mr. Arudo’s Japan Times article is now quite old but the Japanese quoted above is from an up-to-date, official government web site.

The last sentence of the Japanese text I quoted is what Arudo Debito translated. The preceding sentence says that hotels are to keep records of their guests, including names, addresses, and occupation, etc (?). Thus, the following sentence is placed as instructions on how to handle guests who don’t have an address in Japan – not all foreigners.

As Mr. Arudo wrote in the Japan Times article above, the law has been implemented as though it applied to all foreigners, regardless of residency. It is in this sense that his article was titled “Creating laws out of thin air: Revisions to hotel laws stretched by police to target foreigners.”

The Nikkei article about the introduction of fingerprint scanners into the situation presents the change as a welcome option that we will now “be able” to take advantage of. Perhaps some will welcome this, but I find it to be disturbing. Based on past over-reaches (beyond the letter of the law, that is), I’m afraid that people will be pushed to conform to another misrepresentation of “Japanese law.”

– Kirk

P.S. After I wrote this post, Mr. Arudou informed me that he has written several updates. Check out

http://www.debito.org/?p=13930 “Onur update: Ibaraki Pref. Police lying on posters requiring hotels to inspect and photocopy all foreign passports; gets police to change their posters!”

I think it’s very informative.

http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Japan-to-allow-fingerprint-authorization-for-visitors