Firms providing the latest in biometric security - using systems that can identify an individual's face, hand or fingerprint - are enjoying a boom in Japan amid an increase in forgery and cyber crime.

The technology includes ways to combat credit card fraud and Internet offenses such as identity theft by avoiding the need for PIN numbers as well as doors that dispense with conventional locks and instead rely on face recognition. Some analysts say technology vendors including Fujitsu-Frontech have great potential in the biometrics security market, which is expected to grow rapidly from infancy.

"The growth potential for the technology providers - especially specialized ones - is huge if their products are used by big clients,'' said Jun Morita, a fund manager at Chibagin Asset Management.

Private firm Yano Research Institute says Japan's biometrics market hit 8.76 billion yen (HK$621.08 million) in 2004, up 39 percent in two years. It is expected to grow to 27.2 billion yen in 2010 as the technology is adopted for mobile phones, personal data assistants and ATMs.

Interest in biometrics technology for access control or personal identification is growing around the world, with the global biometrics market expected to top US$4.6 billion in 2008 from US$719 million in 2003, according to the International Biometric Group.

In the United States and Europe, companies such as Alcatel, Nuance Communications and SAFLINK have been developing non-password biometrics security using fingerprints, face recognition or recognition of veins in the palm or fingers.

In Japan, demand for the technology has been spurred by the introduction in April of the Personal Information Protection Law, which calls for companies and organizations to establish and manage company-wide information security. Japan's second-biggest bank, Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group, is receiving more than 2,000 applications a day for a credit card launched last year that identifies users by the veins in their palm. It has installed an authentication system developed by Fujitsu-Frontech in half of its 3,000 ATMs.

Japan Post, which includes the world's biggest deposit-taking institution with more than US$3 trillion (HK$23.3 trillion) in investment assets, plans to introduce a cash card next year that carries a finger vein authentication system to counter forgery and card skimming. The number of credit or cash card forgery crimes in Japan rose nearly 6 percent in the first half of 2005 from the same period last year.

Internet-related crimes including "phishing'' and illegal access to computer networks have more than doubled in Japan in the past five years, police data shows. Vendor TDI, which plans to launch commercial sales of a facial recognition security system next month, targeting such firms as makers of locks and doors, expects the product to help increase sales by 1 billion yen in the business year to next March.