Any traveler to Tokyo usually relies heavily on rechargeable IC cards like Suica and Pasmo, even though multi-day travel passes and single trip paper tickets are also available.

Refilling and topping up those cards, let alone purchasing physical tickets, can be a bit burdensome if you lack experience operating the ticket terminals, apps or are hesitant to speak with a ticket agent.

The temporary halt in sales of Pasmo and Suica cards last month due to a global shortage of semiconductors added an additional layer of complexity for travelers and daily commuters.

Now, a welcome and significant announcement has surfaced — major Tokyo train companies are getting ready to introduce contactless fare systems that you can pay with credit and debit cards.

As per Nikkei Asia, Tokyu Corporation aims to begin testing this payment service in the summer on the Den-en-toshi Line and intends to expand it to all its train stations by spring 2024. Tokyo Metro also plans to introduce a tap-and-go system at its stations by 2024.

Nikkei reports that with this new service, tourists and commuters who purchase a special ticket online will be able to pass through the station gates by simply hovering their credit or debit card over the sensor. The system will also accept prepaid cards and QR code payments via smartphones.

For Tokyo Metro in particular, Tap-and-Go is a strong catalyst for efficiency with massive economic upside.

Transit is a cornerstone use case for tap-and-go payments — contactless adoption in the UK, for example, was aided by the enablement of tapping to pay on transit systems. Initially, this was driven by Transport for London’s decision to enable contactless payments system wide, which later expanded to other transit systems across the UK.

While contactless payments are an evolution of EMV chip in most circumstances, they are a revolution for transit because they fundamentally change the ticketing and entry process.

Riders can tap to enter a transit system instead of buying and retaining a fare card for the cost of the ride.

Again, this same thing is happening in the U.S. — the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) began implementing contactless payments in May of 2019, and just hit its Billionth OMNY transaction in August of 2023. The agency reported that more than two-thirds, or 68%, of its OMNY trips are paid for with Apple Pay, Google Wallet and other NFC payments services connected with digital wallets. The rest are contactless credit and debit cards.

The adoption of card-based payments will slash Japanese rail companies’ costs for installing and maintaining ticket machines. For Tokyo in particular, it’s a strong catalyst for efficiency with massive economic upside. Tokyo Metro’s daily passengers have reached a total 6.84 million people for 9 lines. This figure far exceeds other private railway companies in the metropolitan area, and ranks second to JR East, acting as the main artery for moving about in the downtown area.

The program’s roll-out and adoption will no doubt have it’s challenges, however.

“It’s easy to use the service in suburban areas where there aren’t many passengers, but whether it can withstand operations at major stations in Japan’s urban centers will be the key to popularization,” said Daisuke Tanaka of Nomura Research Institute.

Considering the track record (pun intended) of the world’s third most efficient and celebrated transit system, we’d bet that it will be up to the task.