It would be great if Japan implemented such a program. I hope it doesn't get tied to the APEC card. For one, the US is still not issuing them, and also, it's valid only for business travel. I know the right-wingers will raise a fuss no matter what, but in practical terms, since Immigration "never" asks questions coming into Japan anyway (at least for low-risk travelers), automating the process won't reduce national security or cause a wave of illegals to suddenly land, especially if pre-enrollment is required. I know that if you abuse the Temporary Visitor status by using it to unofficially live in Japan, eventually you'll get stopped on the way in and questioned further. Whatever criteria they use to do this could be added to automated clearance, such that once you step over the invisible line you get sent to Secondary just as you do today, so that's not an issue. The response to the anti-immigration people is that by using automation to process low-risk travelers, the immigration officers have more time to scrutinize who's left and thus a greater likelihood of actually catching the problem cases before they enter the country.

I have Global Entry and it makes it so much easier coming back into the US (GE provides automated US Immigration clearance, and "skip the line and no questions (usually)" Customs clearance. And, Global Entry now automatically allows me to use the automated gates when entering Australia, with no pre-enrollment necessary. And, I just got enrolled for automated Immigration clearance in Hong Kong. It would be wonderful to have it for Japan.