Originally Posted by
Pickles
Their initial assumption is that if you speak Japanese, then you may have sufficiently strong ties to Japan that you may be actually be living there (illegally, of course, if you're coming in as a visitor). Hence you're likely to be subject to additional questioning to ascertain that. If you're legit, you can convince them of that, but why invite additional scrutiny?
You'd be surprised how many foreigners live in Japan and conveniently take trips abroad every three months within the limits of their 90 day stay as visitors.
Interesting. I'm going to have to ask her in more details about that. She's there again. Still, I think any quick glance at her passport will quickly show that while she's there an awful lot, the stays are all really short more befitting a business traveler or a really frequent vacation traveler (which is what she is).
I haven't been thru immigration so long, I can't remember how the process goes. When do the bag search customs officers come in? I mean, the ones who check the documents would be able to figure out her travel history shows she's not a long term stay threat. But how would the bag search customs officers even pick up on her absent it being a random one? Like when would those people even pick up that she can speak Japanese to any extent?