Japan to launch electronic immigration entry stands at Tokyo airport

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japan will introduce new electronic stands at Tokyo’s Haneda airport for foreign travelers to streamline providing necessary information at immigration and customs, allowing for speedier entry into the country in a drive to boost inbound tourism, it said Thursday.

At one of the country’s busiest airports, a roughly two-month trial run of 10 of the stands, which can capture facial images and scan fingerprints and passports, will begin on Jan. 31.

The service is expected to be formally launched after the trial run, possibly in April, and more of the stands will be installed at other airports, according to Japan’s immigration and customs authorities.

The process can be completed in Chinese, English, Korean and Japanese.

To use the roughly 1.8-meter-tall stands, travelers entering Japan will first need to obtain a QR code by accessing an online government site called Visit Japan Web and registering their information. Their QR code will then be scanned at the airport.

At present, foreign nationals visiting Japan must go through multiple steps before obtaining entry permission. They need a photo of their face and their fingerprints taken before they go through immigration, where they must present their passport to an official and make a customs declaration, either in person or electronically.

The electronic stands will allow the procedures to be completed all at once. A QR code holder can go through immigration quickly via a special lane and walk through an electronic declaration gate that uses facial recognition.

Japanese citizens will also have to follow similar steps but will not be required to have their fingerprints taken at the airport.

“It will save time, though exactly how much will have to be checked during the trial,” an official said. “The point is that we can streamline overlapping steps such as photo-taking, which has been done separately in the immigration and customs inspection areas.”

Japan imposed strict border controls at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the restrictions were removed last year, the country has seen a revival of inbound tourism. In 2023, some 25 million foreign nationals visited Japan, or 78 percent of pre-COVID levels in 2019.

The bulk of visitors came from South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the United States, according to government data.