The guy in the video said it :P and hes a national but he looks foreign.

Isnt it the law to drive WITH your license yet I been caught without and have yet to spend 1 night behind bars. Things get lost and sometimes forgotten....should you spend countless days in prison for a simple mistake??? no,no

(So far I been pulled over in NY, NJ, and PA..same results. In fact I have about 1 year with my license MIA, but I'm gonna wait till it expires to renew it, so instead of paying for a copy of a license thats gonna expire soon I just pay the renew fee.. hehe)

I see where governments are going with this might as well get a chip in our body. This "putting" it in cards crap is just to get us confortable with the idea...then they are gonna suggest body ids (LOL ofcourse this is just my twisted mind at work but it could happen)

We already have to do that with the current alien registration cards, so nothing will change there. It's been that way for a long time.

The guy in the video absolutely LOVES to come up with tons of worst case scenarios, and hunt down anything that can be interpreted as as racism and throw a HUGE fit about it.

They don`t just walk past you and scan you. That`s not what these are designed for. They`re designed to reduce paperwork at city and town halls. Right now, it is a huge pain to do anything official as each and every hall has it`s own separate set of records. When you move, you have to go to one town hall and file paperwork that you are moving, and also get copies of all your stuff - then take it over to the new town hall and file everything again. Not just foreigners, mind you - it`s everyone. Japan finally got around to putting in a national system that can do this digitally and with ease (Juki net). The conversion process for Japanese citizens is still in progress, but it`s definitely not a system designed to discriminate against foreigners. There were a bunch of complaints that Japanese citizens got to be in the new cool system but foreigners still had to do all the registration, etc, by hand - so the new foreigner cards are to be incorporated into the Juki net system... Something which has been heralded as a great thing, as it allows government services to be offered to those eligible who would never have been noticed otherwise (as most groups don`t check the foreign resident registry). It also allows foreigners to be linked to their address in a very visible way (just like citizens) so you don`t end up with families looking like they`re single parent because one of the parents is foreign and in a different registry.

And then some people came along and saw RFID, and made the huge leap to "It`s to discriminate against us!!" while totally ignoring the fact that it`s in all the cards, not just foreigner cards.

If the guy in the video is so worried about being "pulled over because he can`t be scanned", why not carry a Juki net card? Because those carry the same chip and are part of the same system as the new foreigner cards... If police really are doing walk by scanning (which is pretty unlikely...) carrying a Juki net card would alleviate the worries.

But nope, he`d rather do some fear mongering.

Anyway, I have no problem with people being against the RFID. That`s fine - but being against it because it is in the foreigner cards, or because you think it is going to be used to discriminate against foreigners (while ignoring the fact that it is in ALL the cards) just makes me shake my head.

I don't care if its RFID, I'm just scared I might be considered an illegal if I happen to lose mine :P then thrown in jail oO ...me and rooms closed with bars are scary

That`s part of the reason why the new system is actually a good idea, as you can lose your card but still be able to check your info anywhere in Japan... Or apply for a new card anywhere in the country. Before you`d have to go to the office you were registered at and out of luck if you couldn`t get there.

Either way, they wouldn`t just toss you in jail for not having the card. If you were doing something criminal to begin with, then the card would be the last thing you`d need to worry about.
If they stop you and you have to produce identification - a passport works just as well. I hope that you don`t lose your passport on a regular basis. It`s only when you have NO way of producing ANY ID that you`re going to be looking at a jail.

If what you say is true, then I like that Japan is opening up more to immigrants then! AND that guy should stop misinforming people, because stuff he was saying was just scary...lol I don't think I ever lost my passport, so I guess I'm in the clear.

Living in Japan three years the only time I was asked to show my card when I needed work done at City Hall or a Prefectural office and at the airport. I have been to police stations many times (asking directions, recovering a stolen bike) and not once was I asked to show my card.

So you can live in fear or just enjoy yourself.

Thanks for the advice, I will choose to enjoy myself :P

I guess I was looking to much into what that dude in the video said..

I`ve lived in Japan 10 years, and the only times I have needed to present my foreigner card have been immigration related (City hall, immigration office). Anything else, and my driver`s license works with no problems at all.

That guy isn`t necessarily misinforming people - he doesn`t say anything blatantly false. He is misleading people...
He just screams (figuratively) about certain parts of certain issues while ignoring other important facts, and presents potential as intent and purpose (which it is not.)
I generally dislike him and his tactics because they make foreigners look bad in the end.

So this guy is well known?