Japan may replace currency with fingerprints

[Batu69]

Japan testing New Payment System to let Tourists use their Fingerprints instead of Currency

 

 

A new payment system is being tested by the Japanese government that will let foreign tourists authenticate their identities and avail shopping and hospitality services anywhere in Japan through their fingerprints. The idea is to make shopping and attainment of services by visitors in Japan completely safe and fool-proof before the occurrence of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.

 

 

The testing phase will involve using fingerprint scanners at around 300 popular retailers, souvenir shops, hotels, restaurants and establishments in key tourist centers. These included sites in Hakone, Kamakura, Yugawara in Kanagawa Prefecture, and Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture but the government aims to expand the experimenting jurisdiction to Tohoku and Nagoya districts by next spring. By 2020, this system is likely to be introduced in Tokyo as well as everywhere else.

 

The government plans to gradually expand the experiment by next spring, to cover areas including tourist sites in the Tohoku region and urban districts in Nagoya.

It is important to note that visitors would still need to show their passports to check in at any hotel but they can make purchases through fingerprints while staying in Japan, according to Japan News.

 

A similar system was introduced in October 2015 by Huis ten Bosch theme park situated in Nagasaki and it was a successful venture. The company’s spokesperson stated:

Quote

“The system has been well received by customers, including those with children since it saves them the trouble of taking their wallets out.”

 

It is also being reported that Japan will soon be testing such a system for its citizens, which will let them withdraw money from ATM machines in a much secure manner. This new system is aimed at reducing the occurrences of fake transactions using stolen cards.

 

The government has envisioned this kind of a system in order to make sure that maximum tourists arrive in the country to attend the games in 2020. In fact, the government believes that if such a system is implemented throughout the country then it was possible to increase the annual number of tourists to 40 million by 2020.

 

As far as the issue of how and where the system will be used by the tourists, the government has stated that the data will be managed by a particular consultative body that will be led by the government. The data will be converted into anonymous big data as well. The data will be utilized to create tourism-related policies and management strategies after evaluating the movements and spending habits of the tourists. In this way, the entire tourism industry in Japan will receive a boost.

 

However, critics are concerned about the reaction of tourists when they will be asked to share personal information like fingerprints with the authorities, hotels, and retailers, etc.

 

Article source

[truemate]

yes tourist will use their middle finger

 

  "trouble of taking their wallets out.”

wat.... just take a master card with you.. now this much also they cant pick up with them..

[RejZoR]

I'll say this one more time because it hasn't been said often enough.

 

Using fingerprints to lock things is like leaving your house key copies all over the world, wherever you go. Or leaving your card PIN code written on many notes and leaving them everywhere you go. I mean, everything you touch, you leave a fingerprint. And it has been proven countless times finger print scanners are too dumb, primitive and too insecure to trust your funds or anything else critical to them. None of these scanners has or will use translucency detection, skin resistance (current passthrough), pulse detection and blood motion in finger veins to eliminate usage of stolen fingerprints found EVERYWHERE all over the world. And even with all those features, you could still bypass them using modern materials that mimic skin. They are just dumb finger relief scanners. When will people get it they are just the worst method of securing anything important?

 

For locking of your phone screen, I can sort of see it as useful. Rarely anyone has data important enough on the phone that someone will go the length of faking a fingerprint using super expensive high tech materials to fabricate one's fingerprint. But someone who is professionally doing this for a living, I can see it happening. And having such easy access to one's financial assets, it's just screaming BAD all over the place.

 

Transition from magnet strip bank cards to contactless cards was a nice convenience for the users which comes with a transaction limit of 10 or 15€ per transaction and there is a limited number of them allowed per day before terminals require PIN code. I was a bit against it at first, but now I see it's nearly impossible to really abuse the system in a way one would steal you large amount of money. Fingerprints on the other hand, I just don't see how that can be abuse proof.