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TOKYO-A South Korean woman entered Japan last April passing through Japan's biometric immigration screening despite her previous deportation record, Justice Ministry officials said Thursday.The woman has told authorities she went through the screening by placing her fingers over a fingerprint reader after putting a special tape on the fingers, which she said was provided by a broker, the officials said.The woman was deported in July 2007 for illegally staying in Japan after she worked as a bar hostess in Nagano, central Japan, according to the ministry.She is not allowed to reenter Japan for five years after deportation but the Tokyo immigration bureau found last August, or four months after her second entry, that she was again in Nagano, they said.The woman has told bureau officials she bought a forged passport from a broker and entered Japan via Aomori airport, northeastern Japan, and that she used the special tape to pass through the screening, they said.There was a record of her passing through the screening at Aomori airport, they said.The Justice Ministry said it will look into whether such special tape can get by a fingerprint reader.Japan began the biometric immigration screening in November 2007 under which foreign nationals undergo fingerprinting and photographing at airports and seaports nationwide to see if their data match those of deported or wanted foreign nationals.The ministry said in late November that 846 foreign nationals were refused entry to Japan since the beginning of the screening under revised immigration rules.Most of the refusals were due to arriving passengers' fingerprints matching those of people deported in the past while, in several cases, they matched those of wanted people.Of the total refused entry, 297 were South Koreans, 155 Filipinos and 90 Chinese.Some carried other people's passports.Under a revised immigration law enforced in November 2007 as part of an antiterrorism measure, foreign nationals aged over 16 are basically required to be fingerprinted and photographed.As in the days of Noah....
