ESpen36

I just transited through NRT and went landside because I thought I was spending the night...turns out I wasn't. Anyhow, when I went through Customs, the officer asked me how long I was staying, where I had come in from, what I was doing there, etc. After I responded that I have come in from vacation in HKG and was staying one night before flying on to the USA, he proceeded to give me an extremely thorough Customs search of my luggage and my person (including a pat-down). He spent lots of extra time padding deep in the compartments of my rollaboard looking for hidden compartments.

Now, I'm just a regular-looking Caucasian dude in his 20s. Well dressed, well-mannered, etc. No turban, no crazy hair/clothes, no facial hair, nothing like that. I've never had that invasive of a Customs search before in my life. The officer was polite and friendly about it, but he sure was thorough! I wondered if perhaps the other Americans were being targeted, but nope, plenty of Anglo-American-looking travelers sailed past me on all directions.

Finally, at the end, I asked him if my search was random or if I had been selected. He said that I was selected for a search because I met the profile of "a man traveling alone and staying only one night." Crazy! I am not complaining, but I am curious. I fail to see how either of those two conditions makes me a higher-risk traveler.

ESpen36

Another thought:

One thing I did learn, or rather, one rule I reinforced and should have followed: go to the station with the oldest-looking Customs officer. The guy who inspected me couldn't have been much older than 20, and he seemed to be very aware of the supervisor sitting nearby. By contrast, the next desk over had a much older officer (in his 50s), and he was letting all the Americans sail through with barely a glance.

I learned this lesson originally with CBP. Go to the oldest officer in the room. He's seen it all and really knows what to look for (i.e. not me) as he gives people the once-over. Stay away from the rookie who's terrified of making a mistake.

A modified version of the above rule works with TSA: go to the x-ray machine that has the most seasoned-looking TSO watch the screen. He's seen it all and isn't going to call a bag check just because I'm carrying my DC/AC laptop voltage converter (which really trips up some of the less experienced TSOs). Unfortunately, TSA is less of a career agency than Japan Customs, so age is not necessarily a good way of identifying experience as a screener.

UnoriginalGuy

Wow... Let me guess, American? Because those "odd" foreign people deserve a search, right? ... Such ignorant arrogant bull...

Why they might search someone:
- You're unemployed (How do you fund your travel?)
- You didn't buy your ticket (Who did and why?)
- Unusually short stays (Drug smuggler?)
- Unusually long stays (Potential illegal immigrant)
- Unusual or vague reason for a visit
- Profile of visit does not match reason for visit (Entering on the wrong type of Visa, mostly business on a travel visa)
- You are a confessed criminal/nazi/spy/terrorist (you ticked the little box)
- Someone marked your name before you landed (security services/police)
- Documents are suspect or damaged

These are just some of the reasons immigration might stop you. You also might get a full search by customs, or even at airport security if you have to re-enter the "clean zone" before exiting the terminal building.

pdsuk

My bolding for emphasis.

I agree with the sentiments of the previous poster.

The arrogance you display in the bolded section is distasteful

Ivan Grozny

+1
Travel is supposed to broaden the mind.
Hopefully, it will
Also, the Japanese learnt from the JRA experience that persons fitting stereotypical "terrorist" descriptions are not always the ones to watch...
link: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/omni-...theater-4.html

yyzvoyageur

If you think a "regular-looking Caucasian dude in his 20s" is the epitome of righteousness, don't you think organised crime looking for a "courier" would choose to target a person such as yourself?

The other posters have echoed my other thoughts.

Ivan Grozny

The OP had better hope he doesn't get the "full" drugs search next time - it will make this experience seem like utopia

Ivan Grozny

was also a reasonable description of some of the (former) members of the RAF (German terrorists, 1970's), and the IRA/INLA/UDA/UVF/UFF etc. etc.
(Irish terrorists, their organisations being active variously for c.100 years for some, and around 40 years for the rest, with some operatives apparently still active, mostly in crime, but a few still are linked to terrorism)

Italy98

+1

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” —Mark Twain, 1857

n4zhg

You were there to partake of the delights of the bar girls in Japan (read "prostitutes") and thus are a presumed sex criminal.

Scifience

I have also previously experienced a "full" Japanese customs search. The officers were extremely polite, handled my belongings with care, apologized for the inconvenience, assisted in repacking my bags, and sent me on my way. When it became apparent that I spoke Japanese, the one officer chatted with me about food, and even gave me a few restaurant recommendations. The whole thing was an annoyance and delay, to be sure, but hardly a hellish experience. It took about 20 minutes.

I have had much worse experiences with US customs (as a citizen) and also with the TSA. For whatever reason, people are occasionally selected for customs inspections: it is a near certainty that, whoever you are and however you look, if you travel enough, you will be chosen at some point.

This isn't the same issue as the TSA overstepping its authority, reading personal documents and searching for drugs and other things that pose no threat to air travel and thus shouldn't be their concern. Customs officers are supposed to conduct inspections of luggage, looking carefully for contraband. Preventing the import of drugs, parasites that pose a threat to agriculture, and the like does serve a useful function which benefits all of us.

As long as the officers involved are courteous, follow procedure, and don't make things unnecessarily difficult (i.e., inventing reasons to detain us longer, etc.), I really don't think that complaints are terribly justified.

Ivan Grozny

+1
very well put, especially the last paragraph.

Loren Pechtel

I can certainly understand the single male traveler staying only one night being targeted. However, one's itinerary matters--if you're going back where you came from that's a very different thing than simply spending the night on a stopover and then continuing in the same direction tomorrow.

Finite Elephant

I'm not in law enforcement, but isn't a single male in his 20s on a short stay with vague reasons for being in the country pretty much the profile for Someone Up to No Good?

Buddy of mine was briefly unemployed and had recently inherited a modest sum from his grandmother. He decided to visit another friend of ours who's an expat in Asia. Coming back into the US, he gets hung up in customs (I was waiting to pick him up). Once he got through he related to me in a bewildered tone that he'd told the CBO that he'd been in Asia "doing stuff", was unemployed, and could afford travel because he "got some money." And so they went through all his stuff and asked him a bunch more questions in a small room. He couldn't understand it either.

Wilbur

I have had the full-service NRT search four or five times over the last twenty years, and while it is annoying, it is at least polite and within their rights to do so. It is a whole different enchilada from the TSA experience.