Photo/Illutration Car-share services have become popular in Japan. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Here's yet one more thing your smartphone can do.

Drivers in Japan will soon be able to use their smartphones to start rental cars and vehicles in car-sharing services.

To improve convenience for customers, in October, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism will revise regulations to allow smartphones to turn on engines instead of ignition keys.

The transport ministry currently stipulates that each car can have only one ignition key.

Though smartphones and IC cards can be used to open and close car doors, cars can only be started with the ignition keys.

With more people using car-share services and rental cars, new technologies have been developed to make life easier for customers.

Some business operators send “electronic keys” with a time limit for use to drivers' smartphones, enabling each user to share a car, increasing safety.

Users of car-share services can open car doors by passing registered cards over readers attached to the vehicles or sending users' information with smartphones.

But users need to use ignition keys inside the cars to start them.

The ministry currently prohibits the new technologies from being used to start vehicles, and drivers have been stuck with sharing a single ignition key.

Changing the regulation may require an updated definition of what constitutes a "key" as new technologies are put into practical use.