Japanese officials have proposed a biometric payment system that could help tourists authenticate payments with their fingerprints, ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.The payment system is currently being trialled by the government, which also plans to use fingerprints instead of tourists showing their passports when they check into hotels.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.Tourists will be the given option of registering their payment details while still in the airport – fingerprints are already taken on arrival. A scan of two fingers will be taken and linked to the payment details.Fingerprint template data will be managed by a consultative body led by the government.Last October, the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, introduced on a trial basis a similar system in which visitors can make payments with just their fingerprints at about 30 stores and restaurants.
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