Chiba – Japan's Narita and Haneda airports on Monday started the full-scale use of facial recognition, allowing international travelers to check in baggage and pass security checkpoints without showing passports or flight tickets. With the "Face Express" system aimed at speeding up the boarding process and providing a touchless experience for passengers, travelers need to have their photos taken at check-in when they register their passports and boarding passes upon arriving at the airports. After registering necessary data with special terminals, cameras at baggage check-in, security checkpoint entrances and boarding gates will automatically verify passengers' identity and allow them to pass through, Narita International Airport Corp. said. "The procedure (for boarding) ended quickly and the gate opened smoothly," said company employee Susumu Hayakawa, 29, before traveling on a Japan Airlines flight to Chicago from Narita Airport near Tokyo. The system fully came into service after Narita Airport started trialing the use of facial recognition in April, only involving airport staff and not actual travelers. It will also lead to reduced physical contact between travelers, machines, and airport and flight staff, helping to prevent the spread of virus infections, the airport operator has said.

The unmanned gates, which will debut in full Monday, will automate passport control for Japanese passengers. Images of passengers' faces will be taken in front of the gates and compared with passport data to confirm their identities. Thirty-one units will be installed at the airport's three terminals this month. The gates will also be introduced at Tokyo International Airport (Haneda), Chubu Centrair International Airport near Nagoya, Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture and Fukuoka Airport. The gates have been tested at Haneda airport since October.

The "NariTra" multilingual translation app employs noise-canceling techniques and recognizes a wide range of speech. Offered by the airport at no cost, the app is designed to work hands-free -- and therefore suitable for foreign visitors who have just arrived and who have their hands full with luggage. The tests will see the app deployed on a shuttle bus running between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, translating Japanese into English, Chinese and Korean, and vice versa. The airport operator plans to roll out the app by the time the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games take place.