In what could be considered record time, NEC (News - Alert) Corporation and Daon have taken Japan’s border control system from procurement to nationwide deployment in just nine months.

As a result of the companies’ combined efforts, the timely and effective launch of a multi-modal biometrically enabled border control system for the world’s second largest economy can now be in place.

The system went live in November of last year and was used to successfully process more than 10,000 travelers through Narita International Airport during the first morning of operation.

According to Japan’s Immigration Bureau, after the United States, Japan is the second country to implement such a system. The goals of the system include the prevention of terrorism, illegal immigration and other crimes at the border. Save for legally exempted persons, fingerprints and facial images are obtained from persons entering the country who are 16 years of age and older.

Per Japan’s Ministry of Justice system requirements, NEC and Daon deployed a highly scalable, flexible and secure COTS-based solution. Using Daon client side SDKs, NEC’s technical teams independently developed the client side applications required for the system.

Throughout a 12-month trial period, the joint solution demonstrated the advantages of the flexible, vendor-neutral architecture which allows for a variety of biometric capture devices, new matching algorithms and seamless integration with third-party hardware and software.

NEC’s biometrics technology provides maximum matching accuracy and speed, as validated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in a comprehensive range of tests. NEC’s identity management solutions set the standard for fail-safe ID checks in the most critical conditions and are used worldwide.

Daon’s identity management system is fully integrated with NEC technology and provides the centralized and client biometric infrastructure for the border clearance and automated system, with DaonEngine serving as the platform and additional Daon software being used at more than 500 immigration workstations at over 34 airports and seaports.

The November go-live date is positioned as clearly demonstrating the speed of delivery that can be achieved when deploying a centralized national biometric infrastructure based on the NEC-Daon integration.

The successful implementation of this multi-modal biometrically enabled border control system in just nine months proves the strength of the NEC and Daon systems, as well as their ability to integration together to deliver results. The success of this project will not only provide the control systems that Japan needs to have in place at its borders, but will also advance the market reach for NEC and Daon as they capitalize on this project.