Mainichi reports:
The Ministry of Justice is aiming to adopt automated airport immigration gates based on facial recognition technology to deal with increasing numbers of foreign visitors amid limited number of immigration officers as early as 2018.
Japanese passport holders and mid- to long-term foreign residents can already use automated gates with fingerprint readers if they register their fingerprints and other information. The Ministry of Justice website has been pushing for eligible people to use the gates by highlighting the ease with which users can get through immigration procedures by simply following the instructions on the screen at each booth, and that user registration can be completed on the day of a flight.
Read more on Mainichi.
Thanks to Joe Cadillic for this link.