## 4 Infrastructure Improvement for Terminals Exclusively Used for LCCs

In order to strengthen airport functionality to meet the increasing demands in recent years for international flights in the metropolitan areas, an LCC exclusive terminal is being built at Narita Airport and services are due to commence from the spring of 2015.

As a result, a structure is being developed to enable the implementation of fast and smooth immigration examinations through the establishment in 2014 of three departments responsible for the work of immigration examinations and one department responsible for coordination and liaison with the airline companies and for the work of supervising each of the examination departments, and the measure of posting an additional 83 officers.

## 5 Responses to the Action Program towards the Realization of Japan as a Tourism-Oriented Country

In order to promote the measures being implemented by the entire government to achieve a tourism-oriented country, a Ministerial Council on the Promotion of Japan as a Tourism-Oriented Country comprising all of the members of the Cabinet was launched on March 26, 2013, and in the Action Program for the Realization of a Tourism-Oriented Country approved by the Council on June 11, 2013, the target was set of attracting 10 million foreign visitors to Japan in the same year, and this target of 10 million visitors was achieved on December 20, 2013 (released by the Japan National Tourism Organization). In the 2014 Action Program for the Realization of a Tourism-Oriented Country revised on June 17, 2014, the target was set at the high number of 20 million foreign travelers coming to Japan by 2020, and therefore, efforts have been made to develop the CIQ (customs, immigration and quarantine) structure and reduce the maximum waiting time required for the entry examinations at the airport to less than 20 minutes by FY 2016, and moreover, to be able to implement a system in FY 2015 enabling affluent foreign nationals to stay in Japan for the purpose of sightseeing for a maximum of one year.

## Section 2 ☐ Strengthened Countermeasures at the Port of Entry

## ① Implementation of Immigration Examinations through the Use of Biometric Information

Since November 20, 2007, foreign nationals who intend to enter Japan have been required to submit their biometric information (fingerprints and a facial photograph). This enables us to accurately and promptly confirm that the applicant for the verification for landing is the same as the passport holder, and to check the applicant against the blacklist maintained by the Immigration Bureau. In addition, it has become possible to stringently detect those who have previously been deported and again try to enter the country illegally using forged passports or the passports of other people by checking their data against the data on fingerprints and facial photographs of those who departed under a departure order or who were deported in the past retained by the Immigration Bureau. During the period from the commencement of the entry (landing) examination using biometric information to the end of March 2014, the total number of people who were issued with a deportation order or were ordered to depart at a port through the use of biometric information reached around 4,600.