"It's hard to get a card" Japan's transportation IC card is difficult for foreign tourists
2024-08-07
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[Global Times Comprehensive Report] In Japan, holding a transportation card containing an IC (integrated circuit) chip is not only convenient for daily travel, but also allows consumption at related merchants and devices. A report released by the Tokyo Metropolitan Transportation Bureau on the 5th showed that the total number of times Japan's transportation IC cards were used exceeded 300 million in July this year, a year-on-year increase of 105.2%.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, while transportation IC cards are still popular, more and more foreign tourists are having difficulty getting one, and are forced to perform complex calculations and purchase paper tickets to travel.
According to reports, due to the impact of the global epidemic, the semiconductor industry's supply chain has tightened and market demand has decreased. The "Suica Card" issued by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) has stopped issuing it for a year, and the "Pasmo" transportation card under the Tokyo Private Railway Alliance has not yet resumed supply.
Industry insiders have different views on the shortage of transportation IC cards. A chip supplier in the United States said that the global supply of IC card chips has stabilized. Japan's Nikkei Asia website revealed that the reason for restricting the issuance of transportation IC cards in Japan is that Japanese companies use a communication technology called FeliCa, which is almost only implemented in Japan. It can read data in about 0.1 seconds, ensuring that the ticket gates are unobstructed in busy conditions, which means more expensive fees than overseas counterparts. Toshiba, Panasonic and other well-known Japanese companies that support this technology have gradually withdrawn from the transportation IC card market.
The report said that the relevant companies are not in a hurry to resume the issuance of mainstream transportation IC cards. A spokesperson for JR East said: "The IC chip built into the 'Suica Card' can ensure that a card can be used repeatedly, but more and more people do not plan to use it for a long time. We are considering further promoting the use of smartphones and other devices to support railway travel in the future." (Qinggui)
(Source: Global Times)
