WHY need only the USA confine border security work to the physical border..?
That’s idiocy.
They should be comfortable NOWHERE.
In Japan you must ALWAYS carry a Foreigner Identity Card and must present it to register a bike, rent a video DVD, visit a clinic or hospital, rent an apt, open a PO box.
You must show it for 1,000 things.
They can ask you to show it for literally NO reason at all -—simply catching sight of you is enough.
“register a bike, rent a video DVD, visit a clinic or hospital, rent an apt, open a PO box”
In 20 years, I was asked for mine once.