- Kathleen Morikawa
Kathleen Morikawa, (born 1950) is a native of
Pittsburgh who lives inJapan since 1973. Her Japanese husband Jun is a college professor.She was the first foreigner in Japan to be court-sentenced for refusing giving herfingerprint .Under Japanese law, all non-Japanese citizens staying in the country for more than 90 days must apply for an alien registration card. Until the law was revised in 1993 [ Citation
last = Sterngold
first = James
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title = Japan Ends Fingerprinting of Many Non-Japanese
newspaper =The New York Times
pages =
year = 1992
date = 1992-5-21
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7DE113EF932A15756C0A964958260
accessdate = 2008-01-12] , this required the imprint of the left index fingerprint each time the alien registration card was being renewed.Morikawa refused to be fingerprinted on Sept. 9, 1982, because, she said "I got a bit tired of it, it's discriminatory, and I wasn't willing to accept it." [Citation
last =
first =
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title = Around the World; Japan Fines American Under Fingerprint Law
newspaper =The New York Times
pages =
year = 2008
date = 1984-06-15
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04E5DD1639F936A25755C0A962948260
accessdate = 2008-01-12]During that time, an increasing number of foreigners living permanently in Japan, mostly of Korean or Chinese descent, refused to give their fingerprints because they saw it as discriminatory. Morikawa was the 27th person to refuse, but the first to be sentenced. She was fined 10,000 Japanese yen (at that time about $43) by Judge Yoshikatsu Uehara, half the penalty demanded by the prosecutor in Yokohama.
Furthermore, she wasn't issued the necessary re-entry permit for traveling abroad for several years following her sentence. [Citation
last = Morikawa
first = Kathleen
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title = Following in our fingerprints
newspaper =The Japan Times
pages =
year = 2008
date = 2008-01-08
url = http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fl20080108zg.html
accessdate = 2008-01-12]References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
