Train tickets in Japan will change to QR codes

Seven train companies in Japan will start selling a new kind of train ticket in the spring of 2027. The new ticket has a QR code^*1 on it. The companies announced the plan on October 13, 2026.

The seven companies are JR East, Keisei Electric Railway, Keikyu, Tobu Railway, Tokyo Monorail, Hokuso Railway, and Sendai Airport Transit. They run trains in the east of Japan, in places like Tokyo, the capital, and the city of Sendai.

Today, people use a magnetic ticket^*2. It is a small paper ticket, 30 by 57.5 millimeters^*3. Most of the new QR tickets from ticket machines^*4 will be bigger, 57.5 by 85 millimeters.

The new ticket is easy to use. At the station, you hold the ticket over the ticket gate^*5, and the gate reads the QR code. At the end of your trip, you put the ticket into a box on the gate. Some stations do not have the new gates. At those stations, you show your ticket to a station worker at the window.

People will be able to use the new tickets on all lines and at all stations of the seven companies. But the way to use the ticket may be a little different at each station, because the stations have different machines.

Other train companies may start later, in 2027 or after that. Each company will tell people when it is ready. Some trains also run from one company's line onto another company's line. The seven companies are talking with those other companies too.

In May 2024, eight companies first announced the plan to change the tickets.

1. *1 QR code: a small square picture made of black and white dots. A machine or a phone can read it.
2. *2 magnetic ticket: a paper ticket with a thin dark strip on the back. A machine reads the strip.
3. *3 millimeters: a very small measure of length. There are 10 millimeters in one centimeter.
4. *4 ticket machines: machines at a station where you pay and get a ticket
5. *5 ticket gate: a small gate at a station. It reads your ticket and opens to let you in or out.