Press Releases（Archive）
Ten Million Suica Cards Issued!
East Japan Railway Company
October 27, 2004
 |
The IC card "Suica", launched on November 18, 2001, passed the 10 million mark for cards issued on October 26, 2004, reflecting the great popularity of the card among riders.
East Japan Railway Company (JR East) will continue to offer more services to increase Suica convenience and ease of use.
Customers can look forward to seeing more of Suica's potential.
[Suica Milestones]
| 2001 | November | IC ticket gates accepting Suica are introduced in the Tokyo Area. |
| 2002 | April | Tokyo Monorail begins using Suica cards, which are interchangeable with JR East Suica. |
| 2002 | December | Tokyo Waterfront Railway (Rinkai Line) begins using Suica cards, which are interchangeable with JR East and Tokyo Monorail Suica. |
| 2003 | July | Beginning of View Suica Card, combining credit and Suica functions. |
| 2003 | October | Suica commuter passes become available for Shinkansen commuters between Tokyo and Utsunomiya or Takasaki. |
| 2004 | March | Suica shopping service (electronic money) begins. Station retail shops begin accepting Suica. Building access control system installed at JR Shinagawa East Building. Suica can be used as an access card. |
| 2004 | August | Suica becomes interchangeable with the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) ICOCA card. |
| 2004 | September | Suica shopping service (electronic money) expands to shops throughout the city ("Machinaka"). FamilyMart, and others begin accepting the card. |
| 2004 | October | JR East expands service availability area in the Tokyo area. "Green Car Suica System" is introduced for local-train green car tickets on the Shonan-Shinjuku Line, Utsunomiya Line and Takasaki Line. |
| *SeeSuica Data. |
[New services on the way]
*Years shown in parentheses are the expected start of service
| • | Issuance of JAL Card Suica (FY2004) |
| • | Issuance of View Suica ShinGinko Tokyo Card (FY2005) |
| • | Suica service in Niigata area (FY2005) |
| • | "Mobile Suica" service, bringing Suica service to mobile phones (second half of FY2005) |
| • | Suica interchangeable use with "PiTaPa" issued by Surutto KANSAI (FY2005 or after) |
| • | Suica interchangeable use with new IC card issued by Passnet Bus IC Card Co., Ltd. (FY2006) |
Suica Data
1 The road to 10 million cards
2 Number of stations and retail shops offering Suica service
(as of October 27, 2004)
| • | Tokyo metropolitan area |  |
511 stations |
|
|
| • | Tokyo Monorail | 9 stations |
|||
| • | Rinkai Line | 7 stations |
|||
| • | Sendai area | 66 stations |
|||
| • | Kinki area | 254 stations |
Total: 847 stations | ||
|
|||||
| • | NEWDAYS | 312 shops | |||
| • | FamilyMart | 26 shops | |||
| • | Other | 315 shops | Total: 653 shops | ||