Okayama Prefecture, in the southern part of Japan’s Honshu island, has introduced in-app mobile ticketing to help provide a convenient and safe travel environment for locals and visitors.

Passengers can purchase Shimotsui Loop Bus Tokohai one-day tickets for bus travel between Kojima, Shimotsui, and Washuzan via Japanese trip planning and mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) operator, Jorudan’s Japan Transit Planner and Norikae Annai (transit route search) apps.

Mass passenger transportation

The service is operated by suburban mass passenger transportation company Shimotsui Dentetsu which operates in the Kojima, Shimotsui, and Washuzan areas.

This is the latest Japanese launch following on from the partnership signed between Jorudan and Masabi in 2019 and takes the total number of Masabi deployments across the country to 13.

Jorudan has integrated Masabi’s Justride mobile ticketing software developer kit (SDK) into its MaaS apps, meaning once an operator signs up to the service, tickets can be made available via its Japan Transit Planner and Norikae Annai applications.

“Our work with Masabi is concentrated on creating an easy, convenient and safe travel environment, whether you use these services every day or are just visiting Japan,” said Toshikazu Sato, CEO of Jorudan.

“We are enabling people not only to plan their journeys, but also to buy their transport ticket and safely navigate the local area without the need to interact with anything but their smartphone device.” We are delighted with the progress our partnership with Masabi has made so far and are excited to deliver this technology to more areas across Japan.”

“We are enabling people not only to plan their journeys, but also to buy their transport ticket and safely navigate the local area without the need to interact with anything but their smartphone device”

“Since the onset of Covid-19, the progress we have been making in our partnership with Jorudan has become even more critical, and we have been very happy with the results of our alliance in the Japanese market so far,” added Brian Zanghi, CEO of Masabi.

“Deployments like this link communities safely and conveniently and lay the foundations for wider national projects to follow. We are delighted to be launching this service to help locals and visitors alike travel around Okayama.”

Founded in 1979, Jorudan, aims to become the “number one travel tech company” by providing a broad selection of products from journey planning-based software, mobile content, and travel agency services.

Jorudan claims its core service, the Norikae Annai app, has more than 35 million downloads. In 2018, it established J MaaS to seek participation from companies and organisations interested in joining its transit service platform.

You might also like:

• Kagoshima and Hachijo-jima introduce mobile ticketing in-app service
• Specialists to jointly develop MaaS applications
• Jorudan and Masabi partner to bring mobile ticketing to Oita city