That was the question asked by Curzon when he emailed us this article from the Asahi English edition.
Ritsumeikan Primary School, a new facility scheduled to be opened in Kyoto’s Kita Ward next spring, promises to offer a student commuting-route tracking system.
The system uses integrated circuit (IC) cards to register students as they pass certain checkpoints.
The smart card technology will not only register arrival at and departure from school, it will also issue e-mail messages to parents within 10 seconds of a child passing through the ticket gate at their train station.
It’s like what’s wrong with politics. Everything has to be one side or another. Let’s all just hold hands and agree: it’s helpful and creepy.
By the way, I would like to point out that Doshisha, Ritsumeikan’s rival, is also implementing a similar system, but their’s uses GPS. More helpful or creepier?
At least there’s one unequivacebly good piece of news in the article.
The PiTaPa card is a travel smart card promoted by the Surutto Kansai Association, a group of 43 private rail and subway companies and municipal transportation bureaus in the Kansai region.
Finally a unified payment system for Japanese public transportation! May it spread throughout the land, be fruitful and multiply!
You fool! The complicated ticketing system on Japanese trains saved me possibly hundreds of dollars during my poorer student days. This new technology may prevent the next generation of foreign students from scamming the system the way I did.
No, it’s just creepy. How many instances of missing kids do they have? It’s the start of a growing trend in Japan, which now includes all foreigners having to have this chips in their registration cards. What next?
GPS is way better, as the technology and tracking will inevitably get more accurate, whereas the IC chips are going to drive people crazy… Taro was walking on the opposite side of the street and didn’t register, diverting cops from all over the city to search for him.
The missing kids part is pretty bogus, it’s really a way to keep track of attendance and make sure kids aren’t playing hookey. Sofar as that goes, it is ‘useful,’ albeit both a massive violation of rights, and waste of effort.
And don’t worry Adam, I’m sure the individual tickets will still be avaliable, at least for years to come.
Not so fast on that last comment… just like the old Surutto Kansai passes (which have been around for at least 5 years) PiTaPa doesn’t work on JR. It’s the same deal in the Kanto: you use Suica smartcards for JR and Passnet cards for everything else. So it’s still not quite unified.
You’re right, it looks like JR’s Ikoka and the PiTaPa will be non-competing non-compatible standards for now. I think this may be a case where government introduction of a real unified system is the only real hope.