Concert promoters in Japan are starting to use facial recognition technology to issue tickets. It’s meant to cut down wait times and also offers security benefits, with pre-enrolled fans able to pick up their tickets automatically after a face scan.

As The Japan Times reports, the system is currently in use by promoters affiliated with the popular girl band Momoiro Clover Z. Members of the band’s fan club are invited to sign up for membership cards featuring embedded chips that can hold their facial biometric data. When they arrive at a given concert, they present their cards and submit to face scans, and their tickets are then given to them; as one fan attests, it can dramatically reduce wait times, which can last up to an hour in the traditional ID checking method for ticket pick-up.

Such applications of biometric technology seem to be taking off in Japan, with benefits seen not only in the areas of customer convenience and security, but also in preventing scalping and exorbitant ticket re-sale by ensuring that the individuals picking up tickets are actually the ones who ordered them. Meanwhile, groups in the country’s government and financial services sectors are exploring how biometric technology can be used to authorize purchases and other transactions —all signs that Japan may be at the forefront of the world’s growing biometrics boom.

Source: The Japan Times