Japan is looking to implement a new way for you to pay for stuff when you visit.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in Japan is a big deal for the Japanese government and if things go as plan, which we are sure they will, you won’t have to fish out cash or your card for payments if you’re visiting. All you’ll need is your fingerprint and you’ll be able to pay for loads of stuff from dinners at restaurants to memorabilia.

The project will see tourists from around the world being able to shop during their visit to Japan without the need to have a wallet on them, in what’s being touted as fingerprint currency instead. Of course, this new payment mode will be optional and tourists willing to try them out can sign up at the airports as soon as land in Japan.

Apart from offering the ease of payment with just two of your fingers, the project will also do away with the need to present identification documents like your passport at hotels. The fingerprint scanner will also double up as an identification scanner. So there will be no need to fish for documents at every establishment.

Already, 300 hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops and other tourist-related businesses have signed up for the scheme, and as the setup falls into place, more are expected to join the list. After all, the scheme does spell convenience for all those involved!

The establishments signing up are all present in tourist-concentrated areas such as Atami in Shizouka Prefecture and Yugawara, Kamakura and Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture, thus offering visitors plenty of convenient businesses to choose from.

So is this scheme being developed solely to serve tourists? Well, Japan already has such a system in place at the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sosebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, for its own citizens, where the visitors can roam free without their wallets, using only their fingerprints to pay for enjoying the attractions as well as food and other goodies.

Even banks are cashing in on the system, with the Aeon Bank in Japan planning a fingerprint-based ATM system, a move that will reduce efforts as well as increase security for its customers.

The project that’s underway for tourists is only set to take things to the next level.

Using your fingerprints for payments and identification sure sounds like a cool deal. At least you don’t have to worry about forgetting to carry them with you!