Japan trials full-body scanners

Sunday, 12 February 2012

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By Diana Jumaat | 20 July 2010

Despite widespread concerns over privacy, Japan has started testing full-body scanners at its busiest airport. The tests come six months after security services failed to detect explosives concealed in a terrorist’s underwear on a US-bound aircraft from the Netherlands.

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Narita International Airport will test five types of full-body scanners in trials running until 10th September. It is not certain whether or not full-body scanners will be implemented even if the trials are successful.

The introduction of the controversial technology was discussed at the Asia-Pacific Joint Declaration on Aviation Security in Tokyo in March, where policymakers searched for more effective ways of detecting new and emerging terrorism methods on aircraft.

However, concerns among the public and pressure groups over privacy – scanners allow security officials to ‘see’ through a passenger’s clothing – have hounded policymakers in countries where the technology has been trialed - and Japan is no exception.

The Special Assistant to the Director of the Aviation Security Office at the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau, defended the technology in an interview with FutureGov: “Security officials will only monitor their own gender, and only the person monitoring the screen is allowed into the screening room. The full-body images will have blurred faces, and the images will not be stored. Most importantly, security officials will not be allowed to take mobile phones and cameras into the screening room.”

Volunteering passengers are being recruited to gather around 100 samples for each of the machines being tested.

Among the scanners under review are the Passive Millimeter Waves Detector SafeScreen, which can detect objects in areas of low visibility, and the Active Detector, which uses radiation to produce images in real-time.

Airports in Hong Kong, France, the UK and the Netherlands have already started testing full-body scanners although none have been implemented beyond the trial stage yet.

In the United States, 40 full-body scanners are in operation in 19 airports. However, following an amendment approved by the US House of Representatives last summer, the machines can only be used for secondary screenings of suspicious individuals.

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1 Comments

On 25 November 2010 Chrios wrote:

Well,if they do then I won't be getting on a plane much.
This is a waste of time,money and designed to coerce people into subservience,
What is the agenda behind all this? And the next step?What is next, stop and search on the streets?Monitoring of our homes?
Internal chip implants? All in the name of 'our' security….?