Japan has some major plans for drones outside of their recreational use.
The Japan News, as spotted by Endgadget, is reporting that Tokyo's government has tabbed the country's National Strategic Special Zone system to mark off mountainous and island areas as "special drone zones" to conduct verification testing.
The testing for the quadcopters is slated to include whether they're effective at chasing animals such as monkeys away from farms, in addition to using drones to deliver vital supplies during natural disasters.
Those are just a couple of the tests that might go on within the designated drone zones.
"We hope to conduct experiments on a wide range of uses," a metropolitan government official told the Japan News.
The areas will benefit from the fact that restrictions on drones' frequencies will be lifted for purposes of the testing zones. That means pilots could test the drones for the aforementioned practical uses at full or greater power than they're normally allowed.
In Hinohara, the Japan News reports that crops are frequently ravaged by monkeys, creating the need to try to use drones to drive them out of the area.
"We'd like to try chasing away the monkeys with sound-emitting drones," a village official told the news outlet.
In Okutama, which sees parts cut off by heavy snow, Japan hopes to use drones to survey the extent of the problems, while also using them to deliver food and medical supplies.
The use of drones could even spawn new businesses between locations.
