Sunday May 27, 2012

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  • 0

    Bambigirl

    Awful. I took my younger brother to the airport, just a week after that whole Christmas Day incident; the "security" personnel didn't giva a flying **** about who was entering the airport and what they were up to. I saw some people just walk right past the screening stations, some of which didn't even have tickets, they were just accompanying there relatives to the gate. I was in shock, because i could've sworn they stopped allowing this after 9/11. Up unto this point, i was under the impression that people without tickets couldn't go past the security checks.

  • 0

    bdiego

    It depends on the airport, they know terrorists like international airports and would never think of a local one. Something against 2-stop flights.

  • 0

    Badge213

    Would be helpful if you said what airport you were at?

  • 0

    dammit

    I was returning from Heathrow last August, they were really hostile, and shoe-removal was obligatory with a very spiteful glance from the woman giving the orders. But then, when I went to take off the shoes of my almost 2 year old, she said it wasn't necessary.

    I find that worrying, as obviously people will know that small children are the only ones exempt from various screening procedures. And now they're saying children can't be screened with these new machines that give an almost naked image of the body because of child protection laws. I have no problem with protecting kids, including my own, but surely all the psychos need to do now is find a child to sacrifice? Bang.

  • 0

    blvtzpk

    On big issue recently has been the 'random' stops and checks of foreigners by police at Narita airport. These are people who have just left immigration & customs and have been thoroughly Yokoso'd by the local police who have asked them questions that should have been dealt with by the Immigration people. A point in case is which a friend's experience flying out of Narita in mid-December. While sitting in Narita's check-in area, he was approached by a police officer who asked for his passport, gaijin card AND keitai phone number (he was texting when the officer approached him). When my friend asked the officer (in Japanese) whether he'd be conducting the same check of the Japanese couple sitting next to my friend, the officer shrugged and said something to the effect that he was only doing his job. Not unexpectedly, when the officer was done with my friend, he by-passed the Japanese couple and approached the foreign woman sitting next along the same row of seats, and conducted the same line of questioning. My friend was also later singled out and given a thorough going over at the security screening prior to entering immigration AND by the woman taking his boarding card during the boarding process. And remember that this was all before the Dec 25 Detroit incident.

  • 0

    bdiego

    Yeah I've been through Heathrow and just FYI in Britain they're really freaked out about children more than any other country (they make the US look non chalant). It's not unlike the witch hunt for communism where they assumed everyone was a communist (you visited a foreign country, you believed in civil rights, you know crazy stuff) unless you could prove otherwise.

  • 0

    bdiego

    Yes I can attest to being singled out repeatedly over and over as a foreigner in Japan for police checks. All you do is open your passport to the page showing you're a tourist who hasn't overstayed their visa and they'll move on. But it's pretty racist for sure.

  • 0

    ilcub76

    Japanese airports seem to be very lax on security compared to the US. PET bottles, alcoholic beverages, etc. are allowed through security with no checks as to what is in them.

    The TSA workers' attitudes in the US has really changed since Obama took office. They used to scream and bark at everyone in line, but now speak to passengers as if they're human. I almost forgot to take my shoes off, and a nice officer reminded me. I told him I hadn't been back to the US for two years, and he laughed and said he understood.

    As for blvtzpk's comment about the police checks on foreigners, I cannot say that I've had the same experience. In the eight years I have lived here, I have never been stopped and questioned. I fly in and out of Japan several times a year and travel domestically to various locations. Guess I must be lucky.

  • 0

    gaijintraveller

    If they were serious about security, they would fingerprint Japanese. After all terrorists in Japan historically always seem to be Japanese. That is especially true with attacks on Narita airport.

  • 0

    5SpeedRacer5

    I think that the level is adequate or beyond adequate.

    I rail often at the security checks, which I generally see as intrusive and unnecessary. I had problems pretty routinely several years ago, getting stopped and moved around time after time despite an obvious physical disability I had. Still, I have never had a horror story to tell.

    Recently, when coming back to Japan, I had to use four gray bins for different things. I abandoned some juice boxes. Coats off. Empty pockets. Shoes off. I get agitated because I am very much aware of not inconveniencing the people behind me. A beltbuckle or money clip holds up the whole line if I beep. Then my stuff, usually valuables, are scattered in all those bins and people are looking at it, so I hustle to gather it all up and move on quickly. Any glitch in the process, and I am holding up a hundred people after all. The guidelines are vague and variously interpreted. You know that one cigarette lighter is ok, but not two? And I have a case that I am ALWAYS putting stuff into and out of. Did I leave a cutter in there? A tube of toothpaste? I wrack my brain to remember it all.

    Despite all of that sound and fury, I have been wanded only once all these years. I have had pleasant TSA encounters, and I sometimes see people I know on the other side of the scanners. I have had other times where I felt I was doing jumping jacks.

    A disturbing sight this last go-round was the separate lines for first class passengers. That tendency to have different restrictions applying to people with different spending habits should not be allowed.

  • 0

    Badge213

    While many US airports have "priority lanes" for airline elite members, the security check they go through is the same, sometimes its the same line, just a "cut in front". I was a Gold member for an airline, I usually got sent to the front, but got the same "screening" as everyone else.

    Fingerprinting doesnt help capture terrorists, it would mean their fingerprint would happen to be in the system in the first place. I'm sure all the Aum Shinrykyo (1995 sarin attack guys) would pass fingerprint checks with flying colors.

  • 0

    pathat

    The biggest problem with airport security in the U.S. is the people who are supposed to provide it.

  • 0

    WMD

    Japanese should be fingerprinted not foreigners, they have proved in the past to be the terrorists. Anyway, can you imagine the AQ boys lining up to give their prints?? Anyway, it's as easy as hell to fake your prints and fool those stupid machines. Those machines are only in place because all foreigners are seen as criminals.

    These days, who would fly unless you absolutely have to?? An experience from hell. I'd rather go to the dentist!

  • 0

    Sarge

    Dang! I lost yet another handy knife with the little built-in scissors for cutting out newspaper articles to airport security! When am I ever going to learn...

  • 0

    tensaicanadian

    Kanku was not bad on the 8th. At the gate we were patted down and everyone's carry ons were searched. They checked the nihonjin just as well as the gaijin. Once we were checked we had to sit in a roped off area which meant that we couldn't leave to go to the bathroom. On top of that the crew was really late. I did't mind though. I was patted down for a domestic flight from SFO later in the day as well, although i much preferred the young woman at Kanku to the old man at SFO. I have been in 3 other airports as well in the last 2 weeks but it seems that the extra security only happens when you are flying into America. Japanese domestic is very lax, as usual, and Canada to Japan is normal.

  • 0

    Farmboy

    Now that they have "no fly" lists, I suggest the creation of "fly lists." Those of who haven't blown anything up can be hurried through security to board our planes.

  • 0

    Sarge

    Farmboy - Good one.

  • 0

    SEPTIMUS

    Makes no sense

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