Posted on 04/08/2016 10:35:08 AM PDT by SkyPilot
Starting this summer, the government will test a system in which foreign tourists will be able to verify their identities and buy things at stores using only their fingerprints.
The government hopes to increase the number of foreign tourists by using the system to prevent crime and relieve users from the necessity of carrying cash or credit cards. It aims to realize the system by the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The experiment will have inbound tourists register their fingerprints and other data, such as credit card information, at airports and elsewhere.
Tourists would then be able to conduct tax exemption procedures and make purchases after verifying their identities by placing two fingers on special devices installed at stores.
The Inns and Hotels Law requires foreign tourists to show their passports when they check into ryokan inns or hotels.
The government plans to substitute fingerprint authentication for that requirement.
A total of 300 souvenir shops, restaurants, hotels and other establishments will participate in the experiment. They are located in areas that are popular among foreign tourists such as Hakone, Kamakura, Yugawara in Kanagawa Prefecture, and Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture.
The government plans to gradually expand the experiment by next spring, to cover areas including tourist sites in the Tohoku region and urban districts in Nagoya.
It hopes to realize the system throughout the country, including Tokyo, by 2020.
Introducing the system is part of the government’s efforts to increase the annual number of foreign tourists to 40 million by 2020.
It is also aiming to demonstrate the country’s advanced technology by having tourists use the system when they visit Japan for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Data concerning how and where foreign tourists use the system will be managed by a consultative body....
(Excerpt) Read more at the-japan-news.com ...
Ping
Will there be an upsurge in tourists returning home minus fingers?
Now criminals will have to start cutting off fingers and use them as payment.
Grrrrreat!
Hmm...thieves will start collecting fingers now
We are very close
Note to self:
Step 1: invest in fake fingerprint reading skimmers and micro 3-D printers for printing fake fingers with simulated blood flow (a lot of sensors will detect O2 counts as a cut the finger off countermeasure).
Step 2: sell to the Yakuza and other shady groups.
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Profit
[ Hmm...thieves will start collecting fingers now ]
No, many of the new systems being rolled out will detect between “live” fingers and “dead” fingers.
You gotta lift someone’s prints and then use a 3-D printer to print a “Glove” with the victim’s finger prints on them, or make a fake finger with circulating fluid that simulates blood in it that you put the “3-D printed glove” over it.
Whether the mark of the beast or not, I don’t approve of government using biometrics or implants to track people. Government should not have that kind of power and cannot be trusted with that kind of power.
They fingerprint criminals, don’t they?
Pretty sure it doesn’t matter where it is, but when the conversation starts: ‘For your protection, the government has...’ usually means something awful is about to follow.
Fingerprint readers to protect a tiny minority of purchases and to save the 15 seconds it takes to hand over a passport.
Just another waste of government resources, an intrusion into private transactions, oh, and more expense.
Time to start looking up.
Your fingerprint could be lifted from anything you touch (example: Antman defeating the fingerprint lock).
I envision a large market for gloves.
What took them so long?
A fingerprint is not a mark you receive. You’re born with it.
I know you are being facetious, but crime in Japan is actually very low. Mainly because they tightly control who is allowed to immigrate.
“Will there be an upsurge in tourists returning home minus fingers?”
NO, provided that they don’t join the Yakuza whle they are there and then do something stupid (Yakuza punishment for stupidity is cutting off fingers).
Doesn’t say how your fingerprint gets tied to your bank accountaccount or credit card account.
I go through a fingerprint device at 24hour fitness every time I go in. No biggie
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.