The April consumption-tax hike is close. Large firms have answered with base-pay raises, but the picture is patchy by industry. Many people still work in hard-pressed sectors. At smaller firms the tax will hit before any raise, hard on both workers and owners. Yet people still have to ride trains and buses — and those everyday rail fares are going up.
Tokyo Metro, whose Takebashi Station sits directly under Palaceside Building, will pass the tax on to fares from April. I transfer at Nihonbashi, and up to there I use Toei Subway — which will not pass on the tax until June. The reason seems to be time needed for system changes, but it is hard to follow. Toei will run a dual fare: IC-card fares in one-yen units and ticket fares in ten-yen units. Dual fares are common among railways in eastern Japan, and most of them change in April. Having the rise follow later, in a slack June, is unwelcome.
And will the dual system even run accurately? Even now I only glance at the fare display on the ticket gate when I use an IC card. I am hardly going to check down to the yen, and if I am overcharged — or undercharged — I will probably never notice.
Nationwide, the major railways split east and west on dual fares. JR Central, JR West, JR Kyushu, JR Shikoku, JR Hokkaido, the major Kansai private railways, Meitetsu, Nishitetsu and others applied for 10-yen-unit rises on both tickets and IC cards. JR East and the major Kanto private railways applied for one-yen-step rises on IC cards.
The debate in the industry began last May, when JR East said it was considering dual fares. Some argued that IC cards at least should rise in one-yen steps, properly; others were wary of one-yen steps, saying different ticket fares would be unfair and confusing. In late October the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism accepted one-yen fares as a way to “pass on the consumption tax properly,” giving the plan a stamp of approval.
Why the east–west split? A gap in IC-card use is often cited. In the Kanto region some 80–90 percent of riders use IC cards; in other areas many railways see only about 50 percent. At JR West overall use is around 60 percent; in Kansai, not a few people dislike paying fares in advance by charging a card.
Route-search and transfer apps on PCs and phones are now widespread. For dates from April 1 on, those apps will show both IC-card and ticket fares.