SAKURA, Chiba Prefecture--Japan’s first facial authentication ticketing system for public transportation was introduced here, allowing commuters to simply scan their faces to use buses and trains, officials said.

The system was established on the Yamaman Yukarigaoka Line transit system and the Yamaman Community Bus network, which both serve the Yukarigaoka New Town urban development project in Sakura.

Yamaman Co., the Tokyo-based developer of the Yukarigaoka area, also operates the train line and the bus network.

Company officials said users must register their facial data and credit card information on a special-purpose website or elsewhere in advance. They can then board a train or a bus by having their face recognized by a tablet device installed at ticket gates.

The fares are settled in a lump sum payment at the end of each month through the registered credit card.

The system started at 4:30 a.m. on June 15. By the end of the day, 120 passengers, including at least one octogenarian, had used their faces as boarding passes.

The response to the system was positive.

“It’s so good that we don’t have to give children money to carry around for transportation,” one passenger said.

Another said the facial recognition system is particularly convenient for people who tend to forget their commuter passes or purses at home.

WORKS DURING RUSH HOURS

The tablet device has the capacity to authenticate 60 to 70 faces a minute, meaning the system can handle rush hours and other busy times.

Passengers can opt out of the facial authentication service by buying a ticket with a Quick Response (QR) code from a vending machine and having it scanned for boarding.

Sales of regular boarding tickets and commuter passes in the conventional magnetic form stopped on June 14.

However, other types of tickets will remain available in magnetic form for the time being, the officials said. These include discount commuter passes for students, coupon tickets typically used by elderly passengers, and senior passes.

The Yamaman officials said there was no major confusion because different ticketing systems are working concurrently during the transitional period.

Officials of the transport ministry’s Railway Passenger Service Policy Office said facial authentication will most likely become the next mainstay ticketing system, following magnetic cards and IC cards.

The facial authentication system on the Yukarigaoka Line is “the first case of the sort in Japan as far as we know,” an official said.

The ministry officials said they “hope to tell other transit operators about this ‘successful case.’”

Yamaman in 1971 began developing the Yukarigaoka New Town urban community of about 250 hectares. Yukarigaoka means “eucalyptus hills.”

The company has been selling only about 200 accommodation units a year to prevent an age imbalance among the town’s population, which totaled about 19,000 at the end of April this year.

The Yukarigaoka Line, which serves the new town and has six stations, opened in 1982. Three-car trains cover the 5.1-kilometer route in about 14 minutes. Its stations are arranged so every home lies within a 10-minute walk from the nearest station.

The line has a flat fare of 200 yen ($1.25) for adults and 100 yen for children per ride across all zones.

The same fare system applies to the community bus network, which began operating in 2020 mainly to cater to older residents.

STAGE OF IC CARDS SKIPPED

Previously, when only magnetic tickets were available for boarding the Yukarigaoka Line, many users requested an IC card option.

The transit system leapfrogged from magnetic tickets to facial authentication.

“Introducing an IC card system is very expensive, but a facial authentication system costs only about 60 million yen, comprising device installation expenses and system-use fees,” said Satoshi Fujihara, deputy head of Yamaman’s planning and development department.

With the aging of the town’s early residents, Yamaman adopted a facial authentication system to enter a high-rise apartment building that was completed in 2013.

That system has been received favorably by residents, who don’t have to dig out their keys until they are near the doors to their own units.

Yamaman plans to eventually introduce facial authentication settlement systems at commercial and other facilities in the community.

Extending the coverage of facial authentication to the transit systems was part of the company’s efforts to design a community where residents could go out and shop empty-handed.

Yamaman is using facial authentication technologies developed by Tokyo-based Panasonic Connect Co. and a settlement and ticket management system of Jorudan Co., also based in the capital.

The feasibility study along the Yukarigaoka Line and in the community bus network lasted for about two years from May 2021.

A number of adjustments were made before the system was put to practical use, including tweaks to recognize passengers wearing face masks or sunglasses.

Yamaman officials said they hope to link a facial authentication system to patients’ charts at a hospital the company operates in the area to further improve convenience and security.