Japan is to start piloting a new biometric payment scheme for visiting tourists.
It will allow tourists to pay for goods by scanning their fingerprints.
Special kiosks are being set up at airports for visitors to register and store their personal data and credit card information alongside their fingerprint.
The program will be initially available this summer at 300 hotels and retail stores in popular tourist areas where payments can be processed scanning two fingers.
If successful it will be expanded country-wide next year.
The data it records will also be used to analyse customer spending behaviour and plan for future tourism marketing campaigns.
A similar biometric scheme was launched late last year at the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Nagasaki which has proved successful so far.
"The system has been well received by customers, including those with children, since it saves them the trouble of taking their wallets out," a spokesman for the theme park said.
