I'm Making My Own Group!

Japan's group mentality and inefficiency bothers me a lot. A recent example of this corpped up this week. As you probably know, RFID cards are really taking off here - train tickets use them, arcade games use them, shops use them, and you can even have them on your phone. Having a stored amount of money on your card to spend in shops is a great thing - it means you don't even have to carry a wallet around, just a single card.

Edy was the first such service. Put money onto card, use card in shops all around Japan. It's great. Then JR (the state rail company) created Suica, which can store passes or cash to use on the JR train lines around Tokyo. You can also buy stuff in shops with it - and many retailers in the Tokyo area accept Suica instead of Edy.

NTT DoCoMo thought that although a stored-value card is useful, what would be more useful is a credit service. And so iD was born - buy stuff using your phone, and it all gets charged to your phone bill. Tower Records has iD in all its branches, as do many other shops. Most shops now have both Edy and iD.

HMV of course wasn't happy with either, and decided to join QuicPay, a rival service which I have seen nobody using, EVER. Of course, since I shop at HMV frequently, this is annoying. Thank goodness convenience stores aren't so stupid! Lawson use iD, AMPM have Edy, as do Poplar and a few others. Only Seven-11 has so far resisted the RFID card craze. Until this week. So, what did it go for? Edy? iD? Suica?

"Nanaco". A card which only works at Seven-11.

FOR FUCK'S SAKE. The idea of RFID is that you have one card which substitutes your wallet, not a wallet full of RFID cards that will probably interfere with each other. It's ridiculous and absolutely useless. But it makes perfect sense in Japan.

Another example? Take Suica - developed by JR in the Tokyo area. The Metro and Bus companies wanted a card too. So - we have several transport companies serving the same area. We have several companies with the same kind of ticket machines and entry gates. We have several companies who are used by millions of people every day, often on the same journey. The solution is obvious.

Create a new card, with a different brand, but exactly the same features as Suica. EXACTLY the same features. Oh, and make sure the two are interoperable. PASMO cards can be used on JR lines, and Suica cards can be used on the Metro and Buses.

WHY.

London has over 5 different Bus operators, Underground lines, Trams, even urban rail services. And they all use the SAME card - Oyster. But no, Japan has a group mentality. For the PASMO companies, JR was an outsider, so they couldn't possibly use the same card. Seven-11 could easily have used Edy or iD. But no, they're different companies, and we can't possibly have that.

Japan, get your head out of your arse. I want to be able to use ONE card in shops all around the country. I want to be able to use my bank card on ANY ATM in the country, not just one in my home prefecture. I want to be able to book Shinkansen tickets in Fukuoka (you can only book them in Tokyo because JR West is a different company from JR Kyushu... even though the Shinkansen stops in Fukuoka). I want CONVENIENCE, dammit.