JR EAST
Posted by ja2nyda2ny on June 19, 2008
Easy, Straightforward, and Simple
We saw that all the new and bright ideas were overflowing in Japan when we all went to JR, Japanese Railway Company. First of all, a nice presentation about the company was given to us. During the presentation, I found an interesting feature, the Suica. Suica stands for “Super Urban Intelligent Card”, and the pronunciation is also a pun on the Japanese word for watermelon, “Suika”.
It is a rechargeable contactless smart card used as a fare card on the trail lines in Japan. The card is also like a form of electronic money, so that can be used as cash for purchases at stores around the train station. Moreover since the Mobile Suica has introduced, now it is much easier and faster access onto the trains, because the technology made it accessible through the cell phone! HOW NICE – So, what you have to do when you try to take a train is just tapping your card or phone on the sensor of machine. No line for the ticket anymore – NICE –
After the PowerPoint presentation, we moved to the other room. One of the representatives of JR EAST introduced and explained us about the upcoming technologies. The concept of the upcoming technology was passenger-friendly – all of those were made for peoples’ convenience, which will make the travel process easy, straightforward, and simple regardless of age or gender. Especially for the foreigners, regardless of any nationality, it will be very useful and helpful. It was pretty much like the WHARF at NTTDoCoMo in a way that people uses some intercommunication with the computers. It was the UBIQUITOUS again – HAHA For me, personally, the Suica was more impressive, because it gave me the felling of “THE PUBLIC AID” that exist anytime and anywhere.
lucasni2 said
Again Japan amazed me with their attention to the needs of foreigners. This was one of the reasons that Japan felt so inviting to me, because they seemed to go out of their way to invite me in. Not only was English prevalent on signs and maps, with the systems that JR was working on showed that they hope to allow visitors to use their trains as easily as locals. This is something that rarely happens in America, we seem to adopt the idea that foreigners should learn English instead of trying to accommodate everyone.
kayjay0630 said
The word SUICA makes me sad. If you have seen a Japanese animation called, ‘Grave of the fire fliers’ you will understand why. Anyways mobile SUICA is a very good example of a technology that impacts many peoples’ lives with a small change. Not only SUICA but also I was impressed by the electricity-generating floor and cameras that detect unusual actions. HOW KOOL!