JR East to Roll Out Touch-Free Walk-Through Gates at 40 Stations
JR East will introduce walk-through ticket gates that read a smartphone without a tap, starting at 40 stations in spring 2028, including every Yamanote Line stop.
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giftdetect· the right gift in minutesJR East announced on November 10 that it will introduce "walk-through" ticket gates, which let passengers pass without holding a smartphone to a reader, from spring 2028. The first 40 stations include all Yamanote Line stations plus the stations at Narita and Haneda airports. The company aims to extend the system to every station with ticket gates by the end of fiscal 2031.
How it works
The system works with smartphones that support Mobile Suica. It uses ultra-wideband (UWB) radio, which measures the distance and position of devices with high precision. According to JR East, passengers can pass at about the same speed as with today's Mobile Suica. That should help people carrying large luggage or using strollers and wheelchairs, who no longer need to take out their phone. Details of compatible devices will be announced later.
The new gates still support conventional tap-in. Commuter passes and stored balances carry over, and riders can mix methods, for example walking through at the entry station and tapping at the exit. Each station will have one walk-through lane for entry and one for exit.
Trial from April 2027
Before the full rollout, a trial will run from April 10, 2027, to February 29, 2028, at 14 stations in the Tokyo area, including Tokyo, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Shinagawa. About 400 monitors holding commuter passes between the participating stations will take part. They will borrow Sharp AQUOS R10 smartphones with a dedicated app, and JR East will check gate accuracy and behavior during crowded periods.
Sony, FeliCa Networks and JR East Mechatronics are involved in development. They are responsible for the compatible reader/writers, the security software for supported smartphones, and the gate machines and their installation, respectively.
Apps worth a look
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ediviewer: read EDI files like documentsOpen EDIFACT and X12 messages, see every segment explained, convert to JSON/XML, export PDF and Excel. Runs locally, no upload.
giftdetect: the right gift in minutesPick who it is for, the occasion and their personality. The search engine reads product descriptions from local shops and ranks what fits. Free, no sign-up.
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