Japan to cut airport waiting time

January 31, 2018

Tokyo- The transport ministry revealed plans on Tuesday to draw up in fiscal 2018 programs aimed at reducing waiting time at Japanese airports used by many visitors from abroad, by active use of sophisticated technologies.

Ministry officials explained the plans during a public-private liaison meeting at Tokyo International Airport at Haneda.

The programs will be prepared for airports in the three metropolitan areas centering on Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, as well as regional airports including in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, and Naha, Okinawa Prefecture.

Efforts to produce the programs will be led by working groups set up at the airports with the participation of representatives from the ministry, local governments and airlines.

The programs will include schedules for installing face authentication gates, designed to match the facial photos of passengers with the pictures on their passports, and up-to-date baggage check equipment.

The Japanese government has set the goals of boosting the annual number of foreign visitor arrivals to 40 million in 2020 and 60 million in 2030. To achieve the targets, it is working to speed up immigration clearance and baggage checks.

To deal with shortages of airport workers, the ministry presented a road map for automating buses that link passenger terminals and airplanes by 2020. It also calls for putting fully automated, driverless buses into use by 2030. Jiji Press