With the IC cards "Suica" and "PASMO", services that allow people with disabilities to receive discounts on fares will begin in the latter half of next year on railroads and buses in the Kanto region and elsewhere.
When a person with a disability uses Suica or PASMO when using a train or bus, the disability certificate is shown to the station staff at the ticket gate with the station staff to receive a discount on the fare.
To make it easier to use, a council made up of 69 railway and bus operators in the Kanto region and other regions announced a service that allows customers to receive discounts on Suica and PASMO from the latter half of next year without showing their disability certificate.
On the 10th, the presidents of JR East and Odakyu Electric Railway explained the contents of the service to the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Akabane.
Minister Akabane said, "I would like people with disabilities to receive the same services that healthy people can receive as a matter of course as a public policy."
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, there are public transportation facilities all over the country where you can get a discount for people with disabilities with an IC card, but this is the first time in the Kanto region.
Group for persons with disabilities "Expected to start"
Hirokazu Ichihara, Executive Director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Welfare Association for the Blind, said, "When using the discount for persons with disabilities, there is no need to call station staff at the unmanned ticket gates, which are increasing in Tokyo, or to go to the ticket gates with station staff. In addition, the disability certificate also contains the name of the disease that caused the disability, so even if you know that there is no choice, it will be a mental burden to show it to the station staff every time. Some people feel it, so I'm grateful that it's no longer necessary. "