Oita Prefecture, a jurisdiction located on Kyushu Island of southern Japan, plans to roll out a contactless payment card for its bus transport service in the cities of Beppu and Oita.
The three local bus companies–Oita Bus Co., Oita Kotsu Group and Kamenoi Bus Co. Ltd., will accept the card, called Nimoca.
The card is set to launch next winter, beginning with Oita, Takafumi Miyazono, spokesperson for Oita Prefecture, tells PaymentsSource. “Oita Bus and Oita Kotsu will be the first two to install the [contactless] card system in their buses,” he says. “But we are not sure about the specific dates because there are some uncertainties, such as government aid.”
Local newspaper Oita-Press previously reported that the whole project would take two years to complete with an investment of about 800 million yen (US$8.7 million or 6.5 million euros).
The region will not completely replace the current magnetic stripe transit cards even after the Nimoca rollout is complete. “There will be a transition period during which passengers can use both the magnetic card and Nimoca,” Miyazono says. “The system will also be installed in local stores, though the timeline is not clear yet.”
Since Nishi-Nippon Railroad Co. Ltd. in May 2008 launched the card with Sony's Felica contactless technology, agencies had issued 500,000 Nimoca cards as of the end of October.
