The amount of time visitors to Japan spend waiting at airport passport control gates, believed to help form their first impressions of the country, may soon become noticeably shorter thanks to the introduction of special equipment carts.
The Justice Ministry said Tuesday it will debut a new passport control system this fall at the earliest that will allow foreign visitors to register their biometric data — a photo of their face and fingerprint information — with a mobile unit while they wait in line.
The move, part of the overall 2020 Tokyo Olympics effort, will be aimed at easing the burden on visitors who at times have had to wait in long, time-consuming lines for passport control.