Kansai International Airport. Credit: 123rf
JAPAN’s Justice Ministry is looking into equipping immigration officers with a “biocart” that will enable them to process visitors waiting in line to present their passports.
The mobile terminal seeks to help airport authorities shorten processing times by taking facial photographs and fingerprints of those waiting in line, then transmitting the data to the officer at the counter so that it is immediately available to them.
Currently, passengers get identified by immigration officers only when they reach the counter.
According to Kenji Tamai from the FIT sales section of JTB Global Marketing & Travel, the requirement to provide fingerprints was introduced by the Japanese government after the 9-11 attacks in the US.
“Lots of our customers have complained in the past that it has taken them one or even two hours to complete immigration procedures, so we feel this is a very good initiative,” he said.
According to the Justice Ministry, the mobile terminals will be provided at all airports that operate international flights. Funding for the initiative will be requested at Japan’s fiscal 2016 budget.
On average, the longest waiting time for immigration procedures was 36 minutes at Kansai International Airport. At Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport, the maximum wait stands at 24 minutes, while Narita International Airport keeps waiting times at 20 minutes, according to the Justice Ministry.
