Japan to Test New Fingerprint Payment System

What's easier than swiping a credit card through a reader? Inserting a chip-based credit card into the reader's bottom and making small talk with the cashier while it authenticates. And what's easier than doing that? Tapping your smartphone to a payment terminal, waiting for a pretty noise, and going about your way.

Somewhere in this mix is cash—you can pick where. And at the very, very top, if we're ranking by ease, is a new system that the Japanese government is allegedly going to start testing this summer. According to a report from The Japan News, foreign tourists will be able to register their fingerprints when they enter the country. Once they do so, they'll be able to make purchases by just having a little fingerprint reader scan their digit. (Technically, tourists will have to use two fingers, and the setup will only work at stores that are equipped to handle the new system.)

Not only is the system designed to make payments a bit more convenient for those visiting the country, but it's also allegedly more secure of a payment process than using cards and cash. Additionally, the system would allegedly take the place of current requirements that force tourists to show their passports when checking into various inns and hotels.

Though the end goal is to have the entire country on board with fingerprint scanning for payments by 2020—just in time for the Tokyo Summer Olympics and the Summer Paralympics—there will be around 300 stores participating in this summer's test. According to The Japan News, they'll be scattered around popular tourist areas in Japan: Hakone, Kamakura, Yugawara in Kanagawa Prefecture, and Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture, to name a few.

Japan also hopes that its move will help encourage more foreign tourism. Though it's unclear just how many people will decide to visit Japan because of its convenient payment systems—as opposed to the many other reasons one might pick one country over another—Japan's government is looking to increase the number of foreign tourists visiting the country to 40 million by 2020.

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Actually, Japan plans to look at the (anonymous) data from those using the fingerprint scanners to analyze tourists' movements and spending. Presumably, it would then be able to find new ways to make tourist life even better for those visiting (or more attractive for those contemplating a visit).