The government revealed the sci-fi-esque plan which will have foreign tourists verify their identities on arrival at airports to ensure they can buy things at stores across the country using only their fingerprints.
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The proposal means tourists won’t have to carry out wallets all the time
Japan have unveiled a scheme to start testing out ‘fingerprint currency’ which means tourists this summer could buy anything with just the touch of a finger. theThe government revealed the sci-fi-esque plan which will have foreign tourists verify their identities on arrival at airports to ensure they can buy things at stores across the country using only their fingerprints.
Officials expect the futuristic scheme to be a success and they hope for the entire currency to be fingerprint-based in just four years time.Security experts believe the system will prevent crime such as credit card fraud.
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Tourists this summer could buy anything with just the touch of a finger
The proposal also means tourists won’t have to carry out wallets all the time.The experiment will have register the fingerprints of inbound tourists and other data, such as credit card information on arrival.
Tourists will then be able to make purchases simply by placing two fingers on special devices installed at stores.
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A total of 300 souvenir shops, restaurants and hotels will participate in the experimental idea
The system has been well received by customers, including those with children, since it saves them the trouble of taking their wallets out
Japanese theme park spokesman
A total of 300 souvenir shops, restaurants and hotels will participate in the experimental idea, centred mostly within popular tourist districts such as Hakone, Kamakura, Yugawara and Atami.The government plans to gradually expand the experiment by next spring, to cover areas even more tourist sites in the Tohoku region and urban districts in Nagoya.
The country will attempt to roll out the system to entire country and its 40 million annual tourists by 2020, in time for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Officials have rushed to reassure the public and tourists that the sensitive personal data will be securely managed and encrypted amid concerns that tourists will be uneasy about providing fingerprints.The high-tech move comes as a bank and a theme park in Japan rolled out similar schemes in the last year.
In October last year, the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, rolled out a system in which visitors can make payments with just their fingerprints at about 30 stores and restaurants.
A theme park spokesman said: “The system has been well received by customers, including those with children, since it saves them the trouble of taking their wallets out.”
Tokyo-based Aeon Bank became the first bank in Japan to test a system in which customers will be able to withdraw cash from ATMs using only fingerprints for identification and omitting the use of cash cards.
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There are also several fingerprint-accessed ATMs in Poland, which uses a Japanese-made software
An official from the bank explained: “The system is also superior in the area of security, such as preventing people from impersonating our customers.”There are also several fingerprint-accessed ATMs in Poland, which used a Japanese-made softwave to be the first in the West to install the system
There are 2,000 ‘finger vein ID’ ATMs throughout Poland, which promise “cash within your finger”.However, in recent years banks in Britain have warned that such a system is years away from appearing on the UK high street
Source: Express
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