Space for some centres has been created by the relocation of lower-value activities to other sites. For example, a shopping centre was built at Hiratsuka station on land previously occupied by a warehouse, while the mall at Kawagoe was built on land freed up by building an elevated station. At Shinagawa a train depot was moved further out of the city and running lines realigned to release land for development.
Besides operating its own convenience stores, JRE also forms alliances with other companies with the aim of accelerating development and addressing customer needs outside JRE’s competence. JRE also operates sophisticated vending machines at its stations, stocked with top-selling lines from a variety of makers. By means of a 47-inch touch screen, it can determine the gender, age and other characteristics of the customer - these, as well as the time of day and the temperature, prompt the machine to switch menu displays.
It is worth noting that although Japan may lack large numbers of the sort of flagship historic stations valued by passengers in Britain for their character (such as St Pancras, King’s Cross and Newcastle), JRE adopts a sensitive approach where a historic structure survives. The Marunouchi (western) side of Tokyo station was completed in 1914, and was returned to its original state during a five-year renovation finished in 2012. The second to fourth floors of this Important Cultural Property of Japan have been turned into a 150-bedroomed, European-styled hotel, and the open square in front of it has been landscaped.
Train fare collection has been dovetailed with retailing through the Suica IC e-card, introduced in 2001. This reusable debit card can be recharged with cash or credit pre-payments, and enables users to board local trains with the touch of a scanner on automatic ticket gates at either end of the journey. It can also be used at Suica-compatible vending machines and at around 290,000 stores inside and outside stations.
Its use was gradually extended to other transport companies, but in 2013 a nationwide mutual service network was launched linking ten public transport IC cards. This means it can be used for most train and bus services (and some other modes of public transport) in almost every major city in Japan - at 4,400 stations and on 24,000 bus services. Over 50.7 million cards have been issued, and mobile phones can also host the card with a special microchip.
Interestingly, JRE is not focused solely on its urban areas. Rediscovering the Regions Project is a vital component of its strategy for breathing life into the local communities it serves. The main object is to increase traffic flows of people and goods by creating new markets for regional produce.
JRE also invigorates regions by encouraging local communities to participate in forums that generate new ideas, raising the profile of local products and developing tourism resources such as traditional culture and festivals.
Most tangibly, JRE uses its sales channels in the Tokyo metropolitan area to promote regional produce. Station concourses host Sanchoku-Ichi (farmers’ markets) in collaboration with local communities, and NOMONO shops feature locally grown and processed foods, celebrating the distinct food culture of different regions. It has also created new markets at stations, such as the A-Factory craft centre and market beside the waterfront at Aomori station. Most of Japan’s apples are grown in this prefecture, and the craft centre processes them into cider while the market sells local produce.
