Tourists will soon be able to use fingerprints to pay in Japan

It may sound like something straight out of a science fiction movie, but works are in place to enable tourists pay for things with their finger prints as early as this summer.

According to Japanese newspaper, The Yomiuri Shimbun, the country will begin testing this program soon.

So, how does this technology work?

When tourists arrive in Japan, they will be able to register their fingerprints, personal data and credit card information at a kiosk in the airport.

Said information will be stored, and used later when tourists visit hotels and shops, and they can make purchases, go through tax exemption procedures and verify their identity by scanning two of their fingers.

About 300 shops, hotels and restaurants will kick start the test this summer, and if all goes well, it will begin spreading across the country in spring of 2017.

The program is hoped to be fully in place by the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, and the data collected from tourists' transactions will also be used to analyse behaviors and plan tourism strategies.

A fingerprint payment system was introduced by Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Japan's Nagasaki Prefecture and according to a park's spokesman, "the system has been well received by customers, including those with children, since it saves them the trouble of taking their wallets out."

The program will be completely voluntary.