Lame “no liquids” rule coming to Japan airports

From Bloomberg:

South Korea, Japan to Limit Liquids on All Overseas Flights

By Seonjin Cha

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) — South Korea and Japan will expand restrictions on carrying liquids on board international flights from Thursday, to thwart terrorist attacks.

Passengers on all international flights from South Korea, including transit flights, will only be allowed to bring in liquids, gels and aerosol items in containers no larger than 100 milliliters (3.38 oz.), which must be placed in transparent plastic bags, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation said yesterday on its Web site.

The same restrictions will go into effect for all international flights from Japan, the country’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on its Web site on Dec. 19.

The move is an expansion of current restrictions on flights to the U.S. and EU countries that began last year based on guidelines from the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Korean ministry said.

Food for infants and medicines will be exempt from the restrictions but must be reported to security staff in advance, the ministry said.

I thought the “liquid bomb” theory was already discredited! There needs to be some kind of multilateral negotiating body where cooler heads can veto very bad ideas like this liquid rule and infinite copyright term extension.

19 thoughts on “Lame “no liquids” rule coming to Japan airports”

  1. Fear and control. Cause fear to gain control. “There is danger. I will protect you. Do what I say if you want to live.” Much like religious fears regarding the soul.

    Damned annoying. I never fly without at least a litre of water to counter dehydration. I think I’ll take the boat next time….

  2. One could be cynical and say it is a plan for Duty-Free and inflight to sell you stuff, as that is, as far as I am aware, exempt.

    I also read somewhere today that the official plastic bags are on sale for between 400 and 800 yen each!

    And yes, I’ve seen absolutely no evidence that the binary liquid stuff can work outside of a lab environment, certainly not in an airline toilet. The Register had good coverage of this, and Wikipedia, not surprisingly, goes slightly tin-foil-hattish in the middle of their article.

  3. From what I’ve read the liquid explosives thing was pretty much completely debunked. I hate this rule. Like Jade OC I get horribly dehydrated in airplanes and like to have a big bottle of water. Of course now I will have to make do with those shitty little cups of water they give you, which you have no way to even hold onto without keeping the annoying tray table down! Or is it just that you can’t carry liquids through the security checkpoint but can still carry on ones that you buy at the convenience stores inside the gate area? That I could live with, even if it isn’t terribly logical.

  4. I think that this is a scam cooked up by the people who run shops inside transit terminals. You can’t take liquid through security, but inside, anything that you buy in shops (in Canada and the USA as of December anyway – I did in LA and Detroit), you can take into the plane. I guess you can bring an empty bottle through security and fill it up at a water fountain inside if you want…. BS BS BS.

  5. “Like Jade OC I get horribly dehydrated in airplanes and like to have a big bottle of water. ”

    Why not take a bottle and get the stewardesses (and yes, they are still stewardesses) to fill it up? There are also taps on some planes where you help yourself.

  6. Ok, good point Bryce. It doesn’t make the underlying restriction any less stupid though.

  7. I’ve seen taps on some planes, but the water quality hasn’t been the best. I think I will do the empty water bottle trick next time I have to fly on that sort of route.

    It’s depressing how many people blindly accept that this is for their own good. Check out some of the comments on air travel blogs: while most (being experienced travellers) are negative, there is about 30% “they’re only doing this for our own good” type of comments.

  8. On Friday, I was going through security at JFK. I had a small bottle of eye drops in my pocket and a stick of gel-style deodorant in my bag.

    The lady sitting at the front of the checkpoint (the one who asks for your ID and boarding pass) said “Do you have any liquids on your person?” I pulled out the bottle of eye drops. She said “Oh, don’t worry, that’s okay.”

    So then they put my bag through the X-ray machine, and the TSA guy manning the machine asked to open the bag when it came out. He pulled out the deodorant and said “Do you have a bag for this?” I didn’t, so he went over to the next line and came back with a little ziplock bag. I put the deodorant in the bag and he let me go.

    I have no idea how this procedure is supposed to help airport security. But I do know that they were selling bottled water for $3 on the airplane.

  9. Currently, if you fly to or through the US from KIX the liquid screening is in the boarding passage so there’s not even the opportunity to buy a bottle of water after being screened by the initial security checkpoint. Maybe this will at least mean they’ll be doing the liquid screening at the main security checkpoint rather than setting up between the gate and plane during boarding.

  10. What happens to ppl who buy alcohol at the duty free shops before boarding? do they have to drink it all at the gate?

  11. “But I do know that they were selling bottled water for $3 on the airplane.”
    I don’t remember ever being on an airplane where they actually charged for non-alcoholic drinks.

  12. Fly domestically on a lot of US flights or on any low-cost carrier and you’ll learn the true meaning of a “captive market”

  13. MF: This was on American. They were still giving away little cups of coffee/soda for free, but if you wanted the bottle you had to pay.

  14. In theory, can’t you keep hitting the “call” button and get as much water as you want? I’ve never hit the button before, but I guess that if you say you are dehydrated….

  15. M-Bone’s theory is sound in that that is what the button is for and that is what the attendants are there for. However it might take longer than ideal for them to arrive after the tenth time, especially if you fly a US-based carrier where the concept of ‘service’ requires a little work. However if enough people bugged the airlines enough about that maybe they’d put a bit of pressure on the stupid security arrangements.

    Once I went back to the flight attendants’ gallery at the back to get water so often they gave me an entire bottle (that was in the days before I started bringing my own on: the Lawson in KIX has been very useful).

  16. I’ve been on Northwest and it was even worse than Aeroflot(excellent service,by the way).Didn’t like AirFrance and Korean Air either.My favorite is MIAT Mongolian Airways has great service.But 150th among 150 safest airline companies article on Newsweek Japan……

  17. When my mother was traveling to France last summer, the no-liquids ban was in full force (it was August), and it’s extremely inconvenient. This ban sucks, and now it’s in Japan? Great…

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