Kurosaki, F.*, Higashino, S. “A Study of IC Card Systems within Japanese Urban Railway Lines: Considering the Integration of Transportation Services”

The paper “A Study of IC Card Systems within Japanese Urban Railway Lines: Considering the Integration of Transportation Services” (Kurosaki, F.*, Higashino, S.) will be presented at the 7th Conference on the Regulation of Infrastructures (21-22June, 2018). 

ABSTRACT

Since IC cards have much larger data capacity in comparison with paper-based magnetic tickets, they can record the precise data of passengers’ travel. Beyond their aim to minimise costs, Japanese passenger railways have tried to utilise this advantage to make public transport more convenient and to expand their business scope. Thus, they have introduced IC card systems without support from the public sector since the early 2000s, and their usage has become commonplace—especially in urban areas. Although various IC card systems were developed by different railways, inter-operation among them has been promoted since 2013, and now a single major IC card is valid for public transport in urban areas all over Japan. As such, Japanese passenger railways have garnered fruitful results by utilising IC card systems so far. To make public transport in urban areas more convenient, the public sector can also utilise IC card systems to introduce new rules like those found in Singapore.

The presentation is available here.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Fumio KUROSAKI* Senior Researcher, Institute of Transportation Economics (ITE).  Fumio Kurosaki has rich experiences in the railway sector, over 30 years in total. After entering into the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in 1988, he promoted various construction projects as a civil engineer. Then, he was dispatched to the International Union of Railways (UIC) from 2003 to 2006. During the period, he started research activities about railway reform in various countries as a part-time Ph.D. student in University of Leeds. Since his return to Japan, he promoted several overseas consulting works ordered by JBIC, JICA, ADB, etc. Besides these consulting works, he has also been promoting researches mainly in the field of railway management and submitted more than ten reviewed papers and many other academic papers both in English and Japanese. He has been a board member of the Japan Society of Transportation Economics since 2013 and a member of the editorial board of “Competition and Regulation in Network Industries (CRNI)” since 2017. He holds a BSc. from University of Kyoto (Civil Engineering), MSc. from University College of London (UCL), and Ph.D. from University of Leeds (Institute for Transport Studies).

Shosaku HIGASHINO has been working in a railway marketing division in JR-West for 20 years. He has an experience in building the network of Shinkansen booking system ‘EX-IC’ and IC-urban railway network ‘ICOCA’ for the introduction period of these 2 systems in Japan (JR-WEST). For two years he has been working in JR-WEST as Chief Representative Officer in Singapore branch until last July. Now he makes a research on the Japanese transportation issues, maintaining a continual and efficient transportation network, not only in a railway sector but also in the other sectors,  comparing them to the overseas cases. 

*presenting author