KIX airport customs and immigration is painful (compared to Tokyo)
#16
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OP's rant is not about long lines, efficiency or the immigration process in general. Rather, he was subjected to a specifically rigorous immigration & customs experience which may have been caused by:
1. random selection
2. targeted selection due to attitude, observations, unwillingness to answer simple questions such as the address at which he was staying)
3. targeted selection of people who meet a general description because border authorities are looking for such a person and need to verify that OP isn't that person.
This happens at pretty much every border in the world. You can enter NRT 100 times and on the 101st, they are looking for a 5'10" male with brown hair and all of those people get a bit more attention.
If you don't know your cousin's address or the address of the hotel at which you will be staying, it is adviseable to obtain this before departure.
1. random selection
2. targeted selection due to attitude, observations, unwillingness to answer simple questions such as the address at which he was staying)
3. targeted selection of people who meet a general description because border authorities are looking for such a person and need to verify that OP isn't that person.
This happens at pretty much every border in the world. You can enter NRT 100 times and on the 101st, they are looking for a 5'10" male with brown hair and all of those people get a bit more attention.
If you don't know your cousin's address or the address of the hotel at which you will be staying, it is adviseable to obtain this before departure.
#17
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 7,875
OP's rant is not about long lines, efficiency or the immigration process in general. Rather, he was subjected to a specifically rigorous immigration & customs experience which may have been caused by:
1. random selection
2. targeted selection due to attitude, observations, unwillingness to answer simple questions such as the address at which he was staying)
3. targeted selection of people who meet a general description because border authorities are looking for such a person and need to verify that OP isn't that person.
This happens at pretty much every border in the world. You can enter NRT 100 times and on the 101st, they are looking for a 5'10" male with brown hair and all of those people get a bit more attention.
If you don't know your cousin's address or the address of the hotel at which you will be staying, it is adviseable to obtain this before departure.
1. random selection
2. targeted selection due to attitude, observations, unwillingness to answer simple questions such as the address at which he was staying)
3. targeted selection of people who meet a general description because border authorities are looking for such a person and need to verify that OP isn't that person.
This happens at pretty much every border in the world. You can enter NRT 100 times and on the 101st, they are looking for a 5'10" male with brown hair and all of those people get a bit more attention.
If you don't know your cousin's address or the address of the hotel at which you will be staying, it is adviseable to obtain this before departure.
When you say it is adviseable to obtain the address, why? You mean for the purpose of immigration? It is absolutely meaningless to have the address in Japan, as my cousin will pick me up, or you just tell a cab the hotel name. Addresses don't help foreigners find locations in Japan, as their scheme is completely foreign to us.
#18
Join Date: Aug 2008
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When you say it is adviseable to obtain the address, why? You mean for the purpose of immigration? It is absolutely meaningless to have the address in Japan, as my cousin will pick me up, or you just tell a cab the hotel name. Addresses don't help foreigners find locations in Japan, as their scheme is completely foreign to us.
I really don't understand your comment that addresses don't help foreigners find addresses in Japan. Whether you understand an address or not has nothing to do with the fact that an address should be provided on the immigration form. Are you seriously suggesting "Oh, my cousins house" is a valid response to that form? By the way, I am a foreigner and I understand Japanese addresses. Perhaps more study on the topic will assist you.
#19
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Also, don't agree that addresses are useless to foreigners. Picked up the Kodansha Tokyo Atlas for my first visit (2002) and now it's even easier to find anywhere (and see how the address system works) using Google Maps.
Seems to me that having a cousin in Japan just made the OP rather complacent so that there was no real need to get to grips with the realities of visiting Japan. mapleg just listed some sensible reasons as to why immigration authorities want an address.
#20
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I see, the authorities care so much about foreigners but not Japanese.
#22
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#23
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So to the OP - you won't fly to KIX, because a) you had to fill in your hotel's address and b) customs happened to look through your bags. Wow, major hurdles. (I use NGO, KIX, NRT & HND - at each usually I'm waived through and at each I have occasionally been stopped).
The other rants about KIX are just that - rants. But of course feel free to fly to NRT even if your business/holiday takes you to the Kansai area. But be careful - there might be a change of policy at Japan Immigration, so next time (the horrors!) even at NRT they might ask you to fill in your hotel's address. What then?
The other rants about KIX are just that - rants. But of course feel free to fly to NRT even if your business/holiday takes you to the Kansai area. But be careful - there might be a change of policy at Japan Immigration, so next time (the horrors!) even at NRT they might ask you to fill in your hotel's address. What then?
#24
Join Date: Mar 2007
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Japanese people don't have to give their address to immigration since immigration is only concerned with controlling entry by foreigners.
#25
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I think there are others who have flown through NRT multiple times without ever having immigration/customs issues. Sure, you can say you never know why, but it seems to happen more at KIX. My guess is this different mentality (I would call it small-town, sort of like how you get more hassle with TSA at a smaller airport than a major one).
When you say it is adviseable to obtain the address, why? You mean for the purpose of immigration? It is absolutely meaningless to have the address in Japan, as my cousin will pick me up, or you just tell a cab the hotel name. Addresses don't help foreigners find locations in Japan, as their scheme is completely foreign to us.
When you say it is adviseable to obtain the address, why? You mean for the purpose of immigration? It is absolutely meaningless to have the address in Japan, as my cousin will pick me up, or you just tell a cab the hotel name. Addresses don't help foreigners find locations in Japan, as their scheme is completely foreign to us.
If you gave someone at KIX a hard time about insisting on a real address and that turned into getting your bag searched, you will likely find that if you give any border a hard time about a legitimate question --- and this is a legitimate question --- you can expect to be treated to all of the offerings of the border authority.
Can't even blame them.
#26
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My bag gets inspected at customs in HND and NRT every time. It's usually pretty cursory and quick, but they always open it and poke around a bit and ask a couple of questions.
#27
Join Date: Feb 2013
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You are very unlucky. I can't remember the last time I had my bags searched by customs at TYO (I have had quite a few bag searches at departure security and randomly at the gate before boarding, though).
#28
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Kobe/Osaka
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If they must contact a Japanese person (for example, disease carrier on the flight) they just get their address/contact info from the airline.
#29
This entire thread has gotten pretty silly though, I'm not sure why we're all still playing along.
#30
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If we can have a rational, polite discussion that does not degenerate into bickering and name-calling I will keep the thread open.
Regards,
armagebedar
Japan forum moderator
Regards,
armagebedar
Japan forum moderator