Commuters in eastern Japan will say goodbye to the ubiquitous paper tickets with black magnetic layers when East Japan Railway (JR East) and seven other railway operators introduce a new QR code ticketing system by March 2027.
The move is aimed at making the ticketing system more sustainable and efficient, as well as reducing recycling costs and machine errors, the companies said in a joint statement Wednesday.
Currently, train passengers who purchase tickets need to insert them into the ticket gate to enter and exit platforms.
With the new paper QR code tickets, passengers only need to scan the code at the ticket gate, which avoids ticket jams and reduces congestion and the frequency of maintenance.
In addition, the paper QR code tickets are environmentally friendlier and easier to recycle; for magnetic tickets, the paper and magnetic layer that contains metallic components need to be separated first before they are sent for recycling, the railway operators said.
Apart from JR East, the other companies include Tokyo Monorail, which runs the monorail line that connects to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport; Keisei Electric Railway, which operates the Skyliner train service that connects Ueno and the Narita Airport; and Tobu Railway, the owner of the landmark Tokyo Skytree tower.
First introduced in the late 1960s when the first automatic ticket gate was installed in Osaka, magnetic tickets had been the standard mode of payment for trains until prepaid IC cards were introduced in the 2000s.
Since then, the usage of magnetic tickets has slumped — from accounting for some 35% of fare revenue in 2007 to the current 5% to 10% — according to the statement.
The eight companies will use a single shared QR code ticketing system, they said.