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| Above, Narita Airport's arrival lobby. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics looming a year away and to make arriving and departing from Narita Airport much easier, the aiport now has new procedures to accomplish that.
The Asahi Shimbun reported:
Simplified entry and departure procedures are in place for foreign visitors at Narita Airport under a government policy of making Japan a more attractive tourist destination.
The airport, located about 60 kilometers [roughly 37 miles] east of the capital in neighboring Chiba Prefecture, is the main hub for the greater Tokyo area.
Previously, only Japanese citizens could use the facial recognition gates and electronic customs declaration service to leave and enter the country. The eased procedures were extended to overseas visitors on Aug. 27 to reduce stress after long haul flights.
Passengers using the facial recognition system need passports with electronic chips, which are scanned by dedicated devices at the gates to automatically match the photo in the travel document with one taken of the holder at the gate.
The mechanism was introduced in June last year at Narita Airport to smooth entry procedures for Japanese. The program was expanded to cover Japanese passengers leaving the country in October that year as well.
The service was recently further improved to enable foreign visitors staying in Japan for up to 90 days for sightseeing and other purposes to easily depart from the country.
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