Thanks to the growing influx of foreign travelers, immigration procedures often keep international visitors waiting in long queues at Japan's airports.
But short-term travelers will be able to skip long lines when they are leaving the country from this summer by using facial recognition technology that will be deployed at the nation's major airports, immigration authorities said Tuesday.
"We hope the automatization of embarkation procedures will help ease customs procedures and will allow more immigration staff to be tasked with other duties" related to granting permission to enter Japan, an official at the Immigration Services Agency said Tuesday.