Ten IC cards become compatible for trains, buses nationwide

Next they'll be implanting IC chips in your right hand and calling it "The Mark of the Beast".

Finally. It was much needed. :)

a regional comfort.

Now we can be tracked in more places than ever before and our spending lifestyle habits and movements can be monitored for our convince, it's a brave new world on the google card, I feel so comforted knowing that some one is looking after me and YOU.

Now, to save any possible confusion and make the signage smaller, they should be consolidated under one name only.

Now we can be tracked in more places than ever before and our spending lifestyle habits and movements can be >monitored for our convince, it's a brave new world on the google card, I feel so comforted knowing that some one is >looking after me and YOU.

If you have one of the registered cards maybe, if you have an unregistered card (the regular base card) then there's no way for "them" to know who exactly owns or is using the card.

Well said Harry Gatto! Also can you use them to travel by Shinkansen to save the long wait to buy a ticket? I am always behind some old woman who asks a million questions, cannot fined her purse when it comes to pay and asks for a formal written receipt when she does.

@Waltery, yes, that's why I pay for my card charges in cash and use a pseudonym.

@Waltery: Use Pasmo or Suica for instance. You refill cash and you do not have your name registered with these ones. Thus this compatibility is really a mobility and payment improvement.

Open Minded

Waltery is right the felica cash system actually does not contain the ticket information it only provide the card ID number. The amount of money charged which station people entered and/or exit and so on are stored in a central data base managed by each company.

SamuraiBlue: Thanks for your feedback. But I must have missed something: can I use my plain Pasmo card with no name registration everywhere or not?

If yes I do not understand how I could be tracked and traced!?

Thanks for enlightening me.

I don't remember how pasmo cards are sold but I believe you need to provide your name. That information is stored with the ID number and other information within the central data-base.

This by the way is a security measure so you can stop other people from using the card if you dropped the card by accident.

You buy Pasmo card from automat for 500 yen and do not provide any kind of personal info. I have got 5 of them because of friends who gave them to me after leaving Japan.

I maintain no more than 10,000 yen on them and if I lose one is the same as if I lose maximum 10,000 cash.

Too bad the Hiroshima Paspy system isn't included in this group...I wonder who's to blame for that. I travel there often, it's a pain to have to dig for change on the bus!

Open Minded

Fair enough, suica requires you to fill in a form. By the way I believe the 500 yen is a deposit not a purchase so you can probably get back 500 yen per card if you turn in the card at the station.

Some of you guys are too paranoid.

waitery:

" Now we can be tracked in more places than ever before and our spending lifestyle habits "

Suica, Pasmo and similar cards are anymous. What am I missing?

"Suica"

You can use Suica cards to buy watermelons too!

"Some of you guys are too paranoid"

Hee hee!

Also can you use them to travel by Shinkansen to save the long wait to buy a ticket? I am always behind some old woman who asks a million questions, cannot fined her purse when it comes to pay and asks for a formal written receipt when she does.

Suica cannot be used on Shinkansen, but there is no need for you to wait behind old ladies with lots of questions. Just use the ticket vending machines.

Why on earth does anyone care about their spending habits being recorded...... just 'So, what'.

Stewart: I do care! I do not want to be tracked by big brother. Like I do not want to be tracked by Google, thus I use a VPN. I do not want to be tracked by anyone. I want to keep my privacy.

I do not want to be tracked by big brother.

Do you honestly believe there are organizations with nefarious purposes keeping track of insignificant people such as you and I?

@Davealltogether -- It depends on how you define "nefarious purposes." Although government agencies in most countries generally don't bother to track someone's data unless they think they have a reason to do so, there are a number of organizations that track all sorts of data from you, me and a host of other "insignificant people" for marketing purposes.

Haha - There are some seriously Paranoid people here. To get a basic Suica or Pasmo card you do NOT need to provide a name or address, only if its a commuter pass. I use the Suica App in my phone and it doesn't bother me! What can I possibly spend on my Suica App that is going to interest the authorities! Whoever above said they didn't want to get stuck behond 'grannies' queuing for tickets, whats wrong with host of bilingual ticket machines?

Just to add a data point here: Icoca (Kansai) regular/rechargeable cards don't have any of your personal info.

^ of course where you get on/off and recharge is no doubt logged, but I never gave them any personal info to get one.

I live and work in Tokyo. I was in Nagoya ready to take the subway last Monday. I had the presence of mind to ask the at the window if my I could use my SUICA card. They said "Moshiwake gozaimasen."

Sigh......