[JTND] East JR Turns Suica IC Card into Electric Wallet

[Matatabi Report <editor@matatabi.com>]

East Japan Railway Company will offer a new type of Suica IC Cards
that work as electric wallets as well as pre-paid train cards and
commuter/student train passes in the spring of 2004. The new Suica
will be accepted at convenience stores, fastfood restaurants and cafes
in the East JR stations. JR East estimates there will be approximately
500 shops where people can pay with the cards. Suica is a contactless
IC card for JR train commuters(The JR automated ticket gates accept
both IC cards and older magnetic cards.).  The IC card can be credited
up to 20,000 yen (U.S.$170)at a time. You can put a stop if you lose
the cards. It is no secret that JR intends to expand the use of Suica
to the shops and services beyond its station yards. JR currently has
5,600,000 Suica users.

Related stories in the news:

All Nippon Airway adds an option of exchanging frequent flyer mileages
to electric money. ANA swaps its plastic cards for IC cards for those
who want to use the new feature.

A Sapporo subway line begins a trial using DoCoMo i-mode mobile phones
to work as contactless electric pass.


*Suica stands for Super Urban Intelligent Card

Related Links(in Japanese unless noted):

New Suica(Asahi Shimbun)
http://www.asahi.com/business/update/0304/115.html

Sapporo Subway i-mode Trial(Keitai Watch)
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/13033.html

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