Prints on tape trick biometric entry ID system

YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Police have arrested two South Korean women on suspicion of illegally entering Japan by using tape bearing the fingerprints of other people to evade the biometric identification system.

The women, aged 32 and 31, allegedly slipped through the immigration process at Tokyo's Haneda airport in May and October 2008, police said Monday.

It is the first case of arrests involving illegal entrants who used "fingerprint tapes," the Immigration Bureau said.

The cases came to light after both women received deportation orders in January 2008 for overstaying their visas while working as nightclub hostesses in Kanagawa Prefecture, and had their fingerprints taken by the bureau.