JR East will let Suica riders walk through the gates without tapping, trialing from 2027
JR East plans to replace the tap on its Suica gates with a walk-through pass, piloting the technology at 14 Tokyo-area stations from April 2027 before widening it to 40 stations -- including every Yamanote Line platform and both Narita and Haneda airport stations -- by spring 2028, a change that will reshape how shoppers move through the retail floors built into Japan's busiest stations.
East Japan Railway Company (JR East) said on November 10 that it will introduce ticket gates riders can walk through without tapping their Suica, the sixth phase of what it calls its "Suica Renaissance" program. Both the new walk-through gates and today's tap-and-go gates will work side by side, and the same Suica -- physical card or mobile -- passes through either kind, the company said.