Transit agencies in the Japanese city of Kagoshima and island of Hachijo-jima have launched a mobile ticketing in-app service making it easier for riders to purchase tickets anytime, anywhere, directly from their smartphones.

Passengers in Kagoshima can purchase city tram, bus, city view and bus one-day passes for transport services operated by Kagoshima City Transportation Bureau. In Hachijo-jima, Hachijo town bus passengers can purchase two-day passes.

Trip planning service

The introduction marks further expansion of the Japanese footprint of fare payments-as-a-service company Masabi and partner Jorudan, Japan’s trip planning service. The two agencies add to their transit agency customers already live in Tokyo, Oita, Kitakyushu and Nikko Kotsu.

“Because of the coronavirus crisis, the need for cashless payment options for transport operators in Japan is set to increase,” said Toshikazu Sato, CEO of Jorudan.

“We’re pleased to be working with Masabi to offer transport operators as well as passengers in Japan a safe and easy way to implement mobile ticketing solutions. By reducing contact between drivers and passengers, ticketing in the Japan Transit Planner and the Norikae Annai apps are helping to keep everyone safer, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The two deployments are the latest driven by the partnership between Jorudan and Masabi signed in 2019 to integrate their services to deliver a “seamless passenger experience”, rolling out mobile ticketing in cities across Japan.

“In Japan, working with our partner Jorudan we are transforming transit in ever more cities and towns across the country”

Jorudan has integrated Masabi’s Justride mobile ticketing SDK into its trip planning apps, meaning once a transport operator signs up to the service, tickets can quickly be made available for purchase via Jorudan’s mobile applications.

According to the partners, this approach to enabling mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) puts public transport authorities and operators first by providing a cost-effective and risk-free solution to enabling a MaaS experience for passengers.

“Around the world we are working with the leading mobility players to integrate our mobile ticketing into their apps to make taking transit quicker, simpler and safer. In Japan, working with our partner Jorudan we are transforming transit in ever more cities and towns across the country,” added Brian Zanghi, CEO of Masabi.

“We are delighted to be launching two more agencies in Japan with Jorudan, taking us to 10 deployments since the beginning of our partnership and we look forward to announcing more in the near future.”

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