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Free Wi-Fi for tourists to become available at 11 JR West stations

13 Comments

West Japan Railway Company (JR West) said Thursday that it will launch free Wi-Fi service for tourists on July 1 at 11 stations on its shinkansen (bullet train) lines, including for the first time Shin-Kobe, Okayama, Hiroshima, Ogura, Hakata, as well as stations where it is already available -- Kyoto, Shin-Osaka, Osaka, Tenoji, Kansai Airport and Sannomiya.

JR West also said in a statement that on the same day, free Wi-Fi for non-tourists will be available at 29 stations as well. In timeof disaster, all Wi-Fi service will be available for both tourists and non-tourists.

The JR West free Wi-Fi will be available around ticket gates and lobbies at concourses. In order to use the tourist Wi-Fi, you have to get a guest code before arriving in Japan. Then you can access the Wi-Fi by simply selecting JR-WEST_FREE_Wi-Fi on your device. The log-in page will be available in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean.

JR West will set up a website for travel information.

© Japan Today

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13 Comments
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Totally useless, why not make it free to everyone like the rest of the world?

10 ( +10 / -0 )

You have to get a guest code before coming here? Talk about user-unfriendly. By this you've excluded 98% of the users you target because hardly anybody is going to remember to get or bring the code. Why not just make it free and open? What's the reason for implementing this stuff so strangely and punishingly?

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Probably the sponsors/ providers of the 'free service' want customer data for marketing and research purposes.

There is no such thing as a free lunch here...

7 ( +7 / -0 )

About time. Japan is one of the most tech-savvy nations in terms of production, but so behind when it comes to thinks like IT use in homes and at schools, and Wi-Fi hotspots. Many of said hotspots are even limited, say, to Nintendo DS or something. It's getting a lot better, though.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

@zichi

What's a "public phone box", Grandad? ; )

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Wi Fi is a joke in Japan!! And a bad joke !!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I'm on holiday right now and have been enjoying free wifi in pretty much every coffee shop, department store and restaurant I've been to. Then I remember that when I get back to Japan I have to pay for it if I want to use it in places like Starbucks. Sigh....

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The need to subscribe to a Wi-Fi service lies in the providers of such services being responsible for what happens on their networks. So, if someone uses a free Wi-Fi connection to upload viruses, the cops go looking for the owner of that IP address. The recent false arrest fiasco shows how the cops mainly go after IP addresses to find the culprits. So, some of the blame for lack of easy Wi-Fi access is legal worries.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Has anyone elese noticed there is more free wifi than drinking fountains?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Kyoto City has a "three free hours of wi fi" program in place for tourists. But you can only get the free service by first registering for it on the internet! So first, as a tourist, you have to find a place which has internet service so that you can apply for this free access. There is easily accessible free internet all over Asia, Thailand,Cambodia, you name it......this is just embarrassing for Japan!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

It's not just wifi that is a problem in Japan. In nearly all other Asian countries one can purchase local prepaid simcards with generous dataplans for nearly nothing. Sadly in Japan there's no such thing. Are tourists really expected to spend $15/MB or whatever their provider charges them for roaming?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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