Japan’s tap-to-pay Suica train card system aims to go tapless with walk-through gates, location data scans

When East Japan Railway Company (JR East) launched its Suica prepaid card payment system in 2001, it was a gigantic step forward in convenience for train passengers in Japan. Instead of having to buy a ticket from a machine, feed it through a mechanized ticket gate, grab it when it came out on the other side, then stick it in the slot again at the gate at your final destination, Suica allows you to just tap the card on the side of the gate and draws the necessary fare from your prepaid balance, saving the time and hassle of fiddling around with a paper ticket, and also making for a faster flow of people through the gates.

▼ JR ticket gates with touch pads for Suica payment (the gray circles on the right side)

But tapping your card (or scanning your Suica app-equipped phone) isn’t going to be the Suica system’s final form. In a presentation about the platform’s future on December 10, JR East said that their plan is to transition to walk-through gates for Suica users, where you don’t need to tap or scan anything at all.

▼ So no one will see our snazzy wallet at the gate.

There’s no exact timetable for the walk-through gates, but JR East says they’re aiming for them to be in operation within the next 10 years. The company says they’re also planning to integrate the ability to use passengers’ location data to calculate payments, ostensibly by using the GPS signal from Suica app users’ phones to determine where they got on the train and then later exited the rail network, though it’s nor clear if usage of location data will be a requirement to use the walk-through gates.

Other planned new features include the ability to charge your Suica app account beyond the current maximum of 20,000 yen (slated for fall of 2026), to scan your Suica app screen for payment for train fare payments at stations outside the currently supported Suica area (scheduled for 2027), to register your credit card or bank account to your Suica account to pay train fares and make purchases even without pre-charging funds to your Suica account (there already are specified Suica credit cards, but the new system would allow you to tether a card not originally designed for that specific purpose), and to transfer Suica funds from your account to other users’.

Source: JR East, Norimono News via Livedoor News via Otakomu

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