ID

ID, as in Identification card, specifically a government issued photo ID Card is endemic in the USA. To enter the boarding area of an airport, to enter a courthouse or other government building, to take a hotel room, to get your blood tested, to rent a car, to open a bank account, even to pick up your mail at the post office all require a government issued photo ID.

Some might say I am overly sensitive, OK most people would say I am overly sensitive if they could stop themselves from snickering, nonetheless I am offended by the mandates requiring a photo ID. The ID requirement is an invasion of privacy. It wasn't all that long ago that photo ID cards were not required in the USA. My first driver's license in Pennsylvania didn't even have a photo.

They always say it's for safety, for our own good, to prevent terrorism or other such nonsense. It's really about the government wanting to spy on and exercise control over people. Think about it, there is no way that any photo ID could have prevented 9-11 from occurring. Having the photo ID mandate means there is a record of what you have done, a means of tracking your behavior and a means of denying access to something or someplace. I don't like it.

What does this have to do with Japan?　

One reason I moved to Japan was to escape from the encroachments of a Police State in the USA. Photo ID mandates are a minor irritation, but an intrusive one and an ever growing one that I resent.

Here in Japan, I did not have to show photo ID to take a hotel room, or to board a domestic airplane flight, though I did, as a foreigner, have to show a registration card that had my photo in order to open a bank account. Most recently, I had to pick up a piece of mail at the post office. The clerk said something about a card (Ka-Do) and even though I had a photo ID handy, I purposely decided to show her a health insurance card with my name on it, but with no photo.

Maybe she just didn’t want to bother trying to communicate with a non Japanese speaking person, I am not sure, but she handed over the envelope without any further questioning.

A small victory for freedom. And I didn't even bump my head in the process. I'll comment on that cultural quirk in a future blog.