Tuesday, January 28, 2014

No. 830: Japanese technology involved in the IC transit card increases the presence in Southeast Asia (January 28, 2014)

Technology:
The Japanese government will export the payment system that uses IC cards to Vietnam coming May as part of its official development assistance (ODA). A total of 200,000 IC cards complete with necessary equipment will be provided to Vietnam for users of route buses in Hanoi for free. The IC card to be exported is Sony’s contactless IC card Felica. Japan International Cooperation Agency collaborates with Sony, NTT Data, and Dai Nippon Printing. The total investment is expected to be 100 million yen all of which will be paid by ODA. In the initial stage, 26 buses travelling about 30 km from north to south inside Hanoi will accept the IC commuter ticket service in June. When the IC commuter ticket service spreads enough, the prepaid system will be introduced. Local production of IC cards will start in May, and the toll collection system and card readers will be installed at the same time.

The Japanese government plans to expand the market of Japanese IC transit cards to Thailand and India. Hong Kong, Bangladesh, and Singapore have already introduced the Japanese IC transit card system. There are several IC card specifications for public transit in the world. As compared with the Type A widespread in western countries, the Japanese IC card has a built-in chip higher in performance and needs less time for reading at the time of payment. In addition, it can store more information and easily support transfer. Once the Japanese system spreads in Asia, Japanese can move and shop easily during their stay in Asia and the market of IC-card supporting products including buses, rolling stocks, and vending machines will expand. The Japanese government plans to increase exports of infrastructure to 30 trillion yen by 2020.  

You can travel anywhere in Japan only with your IC transit card
No need to buy a ticket for each railway service

Automatic ticket gates of JR East
 

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