Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article examines the Japanese biometrics industry and its discourse, with a focus on the language of biometric ‘sensing’ that has shaped its development over the past two decades. Rooted in the ubiquitous computing boom of the early 2000s, the language of sensing reimagines biometric technology as a mediator between the digital and the human, laying the foundation for biometric surveillance’s expansion into everyday settings such as retail ones. In these newer settings, biometric surveillance is promoted as a means for collecting data on human affect and behavior to be used for marketing and other applications. I argue that this growing ambiguity of biometric surveillance re-articulates a convergence between production and consumption, while it also informs safe society discourses and the shifting role of embodiment within digital culture.

Keywords

biometrics facial recognition Japan Japanese technology industry sensor technology surveillance ubiquitous computing

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Andō

(2003) Yubikitasujōhōkankyō ni okeru senshingugijutsu kobetsu no chinōka kara kettowākuka to chishikikyōyū no senshingu gijutsu e. The Transactions of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan 123(8): 263–270.

Asahi Shinbun (1956) Wiinaa hakase kaikenki – Saibanetikkusuteki bunmeiron o kiku. Asahi Shinbun, 13 April, Tokyo evening edition.

Birchall

(2017) Shareveillance: The Dangers of Openly Sharing and Covertly Collecting Data. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Browne

(2015) Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Cabinet Office (2020) Society 5.0. Available at: https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/society5_0/ (accessed 10 November 2020).

Caplan

(2001) ‘This or that particular person’: Protocols of identification in nineteenth-century Europe. In: Caplan

Torpey (eds) Documenting Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices in the Modern World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp.49–66.

Coalition for Critical Technology (2020) Abolish the #TechToPrisonPipeline. Available at: https://medium.com/@CoalitionForCriticalTechnology/abolish-the-techtoprisonpipeline-9b5b14366b16 (accessed 11 November 2020).

Deleuze

(1992) Postscript on the societies of control. October 59: 3–7.

Eizōsensā shiyō daikibojisshōjikken kentō iinkai (2014) Chōsahōkokusho. Report. 20 October. Available at: https://www.nict.go.jp/nrh/iinkai/report.pdf (accessed 12 November 2020).

10.

Fujitsu (2020a) AI gazōbunseki soryūshon ‘GREENAGES Citywide Surveillance V3’ o hanbaikaishi. Fujitsu, Press release, 12 February. Available at: https://pr.fujitsu.com/jp/news/2020/02/12.html (accessed 29 September 2020).

11.

Fujitsu (2020b) AI o katsuyō shi 3 mitsu risuku o teigen suru shingata koronauirusu wazawai de no hinanjo un’ei no jisshōjikken o jisshi. Fujitsu, Press release, 24 August. Available at: https://pr.fujitsu.com/jp/news/2020/08/24.html (accessed 29 September 2020).

12.

Fukuda

Murakami

Ōkubo

, et al. (2020) Anzen – anshin na shakai no kōchiku ni kōken suru AI gijutsu o mochiita eizōkaiseki soryūshon. Hitachi hyōron 102(3): 400–406.

13.

Gates

(2011) Our Biometric Future: Facial Recognition Technology and the Culture of Surveillance. New York, NY: New York University Press.

14.

Gekker

Hind

(2020) Infrastructural surveillance. New Media & Society 22(8): 1414–1436.

15.

Gershgorn

(2020) Carnival cruises, delta, and 70 countries use a facial recognition company you’ve never heard of. OneZero, 18 February. Available at: https://onezero.medium.com/nec-is-the-most-important-facial-recognition-company-youve-never-heard-of-12381d530510 (accessed 25 June 2020).

16.

Hashimoto

Yamamoto

(2006) Yubikitasushakai o sasaeru RFID tagu kanrenkiki. Fujitsu 57(3): 274–279.

17.

Hayase

Tsukahara

(2019) Baiometorikusu o katsuyō shita hinichijōkūkantaikenkōjō e no torikumi. NEC Technical Journal 71(2): 55–58.

18.

Helles

Flyverbom

(2019) Meshes of surveillance, prediction, and infrastructure: On the cultural and commercial consequences of digital platforms. Surveillance & Society 17(1/2): 34–39.

19.

Hill

(2020) Wrongfully accused by an algorithm. New York Times, 24 June.

20.

Hitachi (2018) Tōkyūdentetsu to Hitachi no kyōsō de, ‘yūzāshiten no sābisu kaihatsu’ o. Hitachi. Available at: https://www.hitachi.co.jp/products/it/lumada/stories/20180316_tokyu/ (accessed: 21 September 2020).

21.

Hitachi (2020) Seisangenba no zentai saitekika. Hitachi. Available at: https://www.hitachi.co.jp/products/it/lumada/cs/00008/index.html (accessed 23 September 2020).

22.

Ido

Matsumoto

Ogasawara

, et al. (2006) Riarutaimu kao – shisenkeisoku shisutemu no kaihatsu to chiteki intafēsu e no ōyō. Jōhōshorigakkai ronbunshi konpyūtabijon to imēji media 47(15): 10–21.

23.

Imaoka

(2016) Riarutaimu kanshi o jitsugen suru dōga kaoninshō gijutsu. NEC Technical Journal 69(1): 34–37.

24.

Ishizaki

Nishizawa

Ōta

, et al. (2005) Yubikitasujōhōshakai no gugenka ni muketa gijutsukaihatsu e no torikumi. Hitachi hyōron 87(7): 627–632.

25.

Iwaki

(2014) Momokuro konsāto ni ‘honninkakuninshisutemu’. ITMedia entāpuraizu, 8 December. Available at: https://www.itmedia.co.jp/enterprise/articles/1412/08/news132.html (accessed 11 November 2020).

26.

Iwasaki

Nakamura

(2020) Shakai shisutemu no jizokutekina kaihatsu to unyō o sasaeru Lumada no purattofōmu. Hitachi hyōron 102(3): 335–340.

27.

Kakusho

Minoh

Mitsugami

(2009) Kamera eizō ni okeru puraibashi taisho no tame no appurōchi. Journal of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence 24(2): 196–201.

28.

Kanasugi

(2004) Yubikitasu shakai ni mukete. The Journal of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan 124(2): 71.

29.

Kawade

Mochimaru

Morishima

(2011) Jisseikai ni manabu eizōgijutsu ~Genjitsu to tenbō~: Kao – jintai media ga hiraku shinsangyō no gazōgijutsu. The Journal of the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers 65(11): 1534–1544.

30.

Kinoshita

Owashi

Sagawa

, et al. (2002) Yubikitasujōhōshakai ga sōzō suru yutaka na shinseikatsu. Hitachi hyōron 84(11): 5–8.

31.

Kiyoshima

(2014) JR Ōsaka biru no kanshi kamera o tsukatta kaoshikbetsu jikken, han’igentei de saikai e. Nikkei XTECH, 7 November.

32.

Koshizuka

(2016) IoT (Internet of Things) no dōkō to kongo no kadai. Keisoku to seigyo 55(12): 1024–1029.

33.

Kuramasu

(2004) Yubikitasushakai ni muketa jidōninshikigijutsu: Ningen no hyōjō ga motsu yutakana jōhō o jidōninshiki suru ‘kaojōhō no riarutaimu keisoku’. Computer & Network LAN 22(11): 5–8.

34.

Kuroda

Nada

Tezuka

, et al. (2019) Shōrai no ritēru sābisu o sasaeru seitai ninshō gijutsu ni yoru atarashii tempo soryūshon. NEC Technical Journal 71(2): 45–48.

35.

Langlois

Elmer

(2019) Impersonal subjectivation from platforms to infrastructures. Media Culture & Society 41(2): 236–251.

36.

Liu

(2004) The Laws of Cool: Knowledge Work and the Culture of Information. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

37.

Liu

Nishimura

(2019) Eizō kara fushinsha o kōseido de shiborikomu kōdō patānu no jidōbunrui. NEC Technical Journal 71(2): 87–90.

38.

Lyon

(2001) Under my skin: From identification papers to body surveillance. In: Caplan

Torpey (eds) Documenting Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices in the Modern World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp.291–310.

39.

Mann

(2019) ‘I Am Spartacus’: Individualising visual media and warfare. Media Culture & Society 41(1): 38–53.

40.

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2005) ‘u-Japan’ no gaiyō. Report, January. Available at: https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_sosiki/joho_tsusin/policyreports/chousa/yubi_pla/pdf/050316_2_03.pdf (accessed 10 November 2020).

41.

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2006) Jōhōtsūshinhakusho Heisei 180-nenban. Available at: https://warp.da.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/258151/www.johotsusintokei.soumu.go.jp/whitepaper/ja/h18/pdf/18honpen.pdf (accessed 17 September 2020)

42.

Miura

Miyatake

Nagasaka

(2009) Kojinninshōsochi. Patent JP4207717B2, Japan.

43.

Mori

Sasaki

Shinzaki

(2003) Baiometorikusuninshōgijutsu. Fujitsu 54(4): 272–279.

44.

National Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (2013) Daikibo fukugōshisetsu ni okeru ICT gijutsu no riyō jisshōjikken o Ōsaka Sutēshon Siti de jissi. Press release. 25 November. Available at: https://www.nict.go.jp/press/2013/11/25-1.html (accessed 12 November 2020).

45.

NEC (2016) NEC to provide facial comparison technology at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Press release. 5 May. Available at: https://www.nec.com/en/press/201605/global_20160505_01.html (accessed 11 November 2020).

46.

NEC (2019a) Baoimetorikusu kenkyūjo: Kenkyūkaihatsu nit suite. Available at: https://jpn.nec.com/rd/labs/biometrics/index.html (accessed 10 November 2020).

47.

NEC (2019b) Sebun-Erebun-Japan: AI to IoT o katsuyō shita, hito to kankyō ni yasashii misedukuri. Video. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExQeHUbVuZw (accessed 11 November 2020).

48.

NEC (2020a) Biometric authentication: Products & solutions. Available at: https://www.nec.com/en/global/solutions/biometrics/index.html (accessed 10 November 2020).

49.

NEC (2020b) Rōson: Dijitaru gijutsu o katsuyō shita shin’ya shōninka tempo e no chōsen. Video. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C60Gv5piDso (accessed 11 November 2020).

50.

NEC (2021) Gazō ni yoru jinbutsuzōbunseki shisutemu ‘FieldAnalyst.’ Available at: https://www.nec-solutioninnovators.co.jp/sl/fieldanalyst/fa_01/fieldanalyst_for_gate/ (accessed 4 August 2021).

51.

NTT Gijutsu jānaru (2018) Manbikitaisaku o mokuteki toshita NTT Higashinihon no AI kamera yō purattofōmusābisu ‘AI gādoman’ no teikyo. NTT gijutsu jānaru 30(11): 41–43.

52.

Ogata

(2004) Yubikitasukankyōjitsugen no tame no sensa. Shisutemu/Seigyo/Jōhō 48(11): 452–457.

53.

Okatani

(2014) Deep learning. The Journal of the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers 68(6): 466–471.

54.

OMRON (2020) Gazō senshingu gijutsu apurekēshonrei: Seibetsu – Nenreisuitei. Available at: https://plus-sensing.omron.co.jp/function/attribute (accessed 10 November 2020).

55.

Pisani

O’Brien

(2020) Amazon bans police use of its face recognition for a year. Associated Press, 10 June.

56.

Rieger

(2018) At least two malls are using facial recognition technology to track shoppers’ ages and genders without telling. CBC News, 26 July.

57.

Sakamoto

Takaya

(2014) Seitaininshōgijutsu no sūsei (dai 2 kai) Senshinkoku ni okeru dōkō: Kaoninshōgijutsu o ōyōshita biggudēta – māketingu. Jidōninshiki 27(6): 54–57.

58.

Satō

(2019) Ōsaka Metoro, kaoninshō de gēto o kaihei suru kaisatsuki no jikken. CNET Japan, 11 December.

59.

Seto

(2004) Baiometorikkusuninshōgijutsu no dōkō. Journal of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers 43(7): 533–538.

60.

Seto

(2014) Baimetorikku ninshōgijutsu no kenkyūkaihatsu to seihinka e no kitai. IEICE Fundamentals Review 8(2): 77–83.

61.

Turow

(2017) The Aisles Have Eyes: How Retailers Track Your Shopping, Strip Your Privacy, and Define Your Power. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

62.

Weiser

(1991) The computer for the 21st century. Scientific American 265(3): 94–104.

63.

Wiener

(1954) The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

64.

Zuboff

(2015) Big other: Surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization. Journal of Information Technology 30(1): 75–89.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.08 MB