Japan is introducing facial recognition for arriving passengers at six major airports in time for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Japanese company NEC announced the order from the Japanese Government for an electronic customs system using facial recognition at the customs inspection areas of six major airports in Japan.
The six airports are:
- New Chitose Airport
- Narita International Airport
- Haneda Airport
- Chubu International Airport
- Kansai International Airport
- Fukuoka Airport
The six major airports account for approximately 90% of the annual passengers entering Japan and the systems are expected to be in place by March 2020.
The facial recognition system is already in use at Narita International Airport Terminal 3.
This system is designed to accelerate the customs procedures at leading airports, where facial recognition can confirm passenger identities when using the system’s electronic declaration terminal and passing through egates.
The electronic customs procedure system consists of three items:
- customs declaration apps
- electronic declaration terminal
- exit gate that uses face recognition
Customs declaration apps and an electronic declaration terminal
Passengers enter the contents of their portable goods into the customs declaration apps and obtain a QR code
Electronic declaration terminal
Passengers scan their passport and the QR code at an electronic declaration terminal in the customs inspection area. At this point their facial biometrics are captured and checked against their facial biometrics in their passport.
Exit gate
The exit gate operates by matching the facial biometrics captured by the electronic declaration terminal with the facial image taken by a biometric camera at an exit gate.
N.B. Image credit: NEC
