When westerners first visited Edo, soon to be renamed Tokyo, most of them looked down on local fire fighters as backward and ill-equipped for the job. Only a few took the time to carefully observe and grow to appreciate how the Tobishoku fire brigades stripped roof tiles and pulled down houses to skillfully create fire breaks, keeping fires contained so the fire would burn out and not spread.
Westerners who pass judgment on Japanese ways of doing things aka ‘the wrong way’, without knowing why they do it that way, or taking the time to find out, are sometimes lampooned as ‘yes buts’ because they never listen to explanation or reason. They just say Yes, but…’ and carry on with their self serving monologue. Clueless people who want to show you how smart they think they are. I call these kind of people yesbutts.
I came across a yesbutt thread recently that passed judgement on how poorly engineered the JR Shinkansen ticketing system was, based on a few minutes of observing the Shinkansen Central Entrance gate area in Kyoto station. And his conclusion? The entire JR Shinkansen ticketing system sucks because 21 people out of 100 going through the gate required assistance. Sucks compared to what? And what’s the reference point?
It didn’t help that he didn’t know what he was talking about, completely unaware of how Shinkansen mobile ticketing, Transit IC cards and transfers work. Let’s take a look at his analysis and pull out a few hidden assumptions.
Assumption #1: Everybody is using 2 ticket basic fare + super (limited) express paper tickets
Paper tickets are still widely used but the majority of Shinkansen paper tickets are single ticket types that combine basic fare and super (limited) express in one. Basic fare + super (limited) express Shinkansen ticketing convention has been in place since 1958 with the introduction of the JNR MARS ticket reservation system, the world’s first train seat reservation system. MARS is what users interface with at station ticket vending machines (TVM), travel agencies and online ticketing such as EX and Eki-Net. A few basic reasons for the 2 tickets in 1 approach is that different discounts can be applied to each ticket portion, and they have to accommodate Shinkansen seat reservations. 2 ticket paper tickets are still used when the user is transferring to or from a local JR station and needs to use the basic fare ticket portion. Ticket options are complex because there are many possible configurations when everything is interconnected as well as the nationwide Japanese rail system is.
Assumption #2: Everybody is using paper tickets
The migration away from paper to mobile ticketing has been going on since 2017 and paper tickets from station TVMs and reservation offices are not where the discounts are anymore. If you want discounts you have to use EX and Eki-Net online Shinkansen ticketing. EX offers paper tickets, OR and Transit IC boarding options with the last one offering the widest range of discount options. Eki-Net focuses on Transit IC boarding with QR coming later in the 2024 fiscal year (April 2024~March 2025).
Judging from online comments and my own gate observations, Shinkansen paper tickets don’t trip users up. Local to Shinkansen transfers trip users up. The Central Shinkansen gate at Kyoto Station is the main transfer point for people transferring from the Kintetsu line and the view point of the YesButt observer video is from just inside the Central Shinkansen gate where Kintetsu transfers are most likely to enter.
There is another local condition that is important to consider because even though transit is highly integrated, use patterns are highly local. In this case the state of PiTaPa. Its failure, a relatively small and shrinking user base, has left Kansai private operators between a rock and a hard place for migrating to mobile ticketing. This is why Nankai, Kintetsu, Hankyu and others players are going all in with Open Loop ticketing and Closed Loop QR ticketing, the latter or which gives them full control. But the reality is that paper ticket use for local non-JR transit are much higher in the Kansai region than paper ticket use in the Suica/PASMO Tokyo region, 5% and shrinking. Local fare (non-JR) paper tickets are almost certainly the biggest holdup when transferring from Kintetsu.
Assumption #3: Everybody uses admission tickets
There is no such thing as an admission ticket, the yesbutt is talking about Shinkansen platform tickets which are for saying goodbye, not for travel. The TVM option is not immediately available and it’s not an item that people will purchase unless they are: #1 saying goodbye at the Shinkansen platform, or #2 a foreign YouTuber trying to cheat JR by hiding in the toilet the entire trip.
The point is this, sure JR Shinkansen ticketing is not perfect but it stands as one of the highest integrated train ticketing systems in the world. Criticism is welcome but only with knowledge and comprehension of what is being observed and critiqued. And more importantly, competent comparison with other systems that are doing it better and why. Only then will a half-assed yesbut stop being a yesbutt.
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