NEC and Mitsubishi Estate have jointly developed and begun operating ReconIDs, an integrated permissions management system that uses facial recognition as the primary authentication method for both shared and tenant-exclusive areas in office buildings. The system is designed to replace multi-card IC card setups, consolidate access control administration, and scale across Mitsubishi Estate Group properties before being offered commercially to outside clients.
Mitsubishi Estate first deployed ReconIDs at its property management subsidiary offices in October 2025, covering the Marunouchi Nakadori Building and Marunouchi 2-chome Building. Deployment expanded in February 2026 to Mitsubishi Estate’s headquarters at Otemachi Park Building and to MIX Marunouchi, a group shared office. As of March 5, 2026, the system entered full live operation across those sites and the companies announced the launch publicly.
The system addresses longstanding friction points in office building access management. IC cards in multi-tenant buildings typically require separate cards for shared lobbies, secure floors, and individual tenant spaces, creating administrative overhead for building managers and inconvenience for users. ReconIDs replaces those credentials with face recognition, enabling users to move between zones through a single biometric identity. The approach also reduces risks associated with lost or stolen cards and identity spoofing.
NEC, which has ranked first in NIST face recognition accuracy testing, supplies the core recognition engine for the system. The company has been deepening its commercial face recognition portfolio in Japan, having recently unveiled a privacy-focused facial recognition system for access control applications that avoids storing full images.
Mitsubishi Estate plans to position ReconIDs as the standard security infrastructure for buildings managed across its group portfolio. The companies are also planning commercial sales to third-party facilities and external tenants beginning in fiscal year 2027. Future versions of the system may extend the authentication options beyond face recognition to include vein recognition, depending on user and facility demand.
The deployment reflects a broader trend in Japan’s commercial real estate sector toward biometric-based building management, where traditional physical credentials are being replaced by systems that centralize identity data and streamline multi-zone permissions without requiring card issuance or recovery workflows.
Sources: IT Leaders
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
