Japan, China, S.Korea to unify commuter cards

[ShintoCanadianmale]

Japan, China, S.Korea to unify commuter cards

Japan, China and South Korea say they will unify the commuter passes used on their public transit systems with a single integrated-circuit pass aimed at increasing tourism.

Ministers in charge of tourism in the 3 countries reached agreement on the plan at a 2-day meeting in Pusan, South Korea, that ended on Monday.

Japan has a single IC card for use on trains and bus lines called "Suica," issued by East Japan Railway Company. China and South Korea have similar IC fare cards.

Japan's transport ministry says by next March, it will first develop an IC card with South Korea, standardizing data processing so the card can be used on the transit systems of both countries.
It says the aim is to introduce the new card in both countries in 2011.

The transport ministry says such a system would be the world's first-ever cross-border, multi-country transit card, raising hopes of increasing the number of tourists visiting the three countries.

2008/06/23 21:04

NHK WORLD English

[yuumin]

That is a good news.

But too bad that Singapore was not included as Singapore commuter use the similar IC card to take public transport.

[Firebird]

Yeah, really sounds great. I guess they didnt include Singapore because its a fair way to go there from Korea or Japan. China is close, so they included that.