TRIAL Holdings.Inc.

Face recognition 'face pass' services are gradually expanding at station ticket gates, supermarket payments, and baseball games. Trial Holdings has introduced a payment service using NEC's face recognition technology at 15 stores in Tokyo and Fukuoka Prefecture, and at Yomiuri Giants games at Tokyo Dome, face pass entry and hands-free payment at some shops using Panasonic Connect technology have become possible. Hitachi and Tobu Railway have introduced face recognition ticket gates at Ikebukuro Station on the Tobu Tojo Line and plan to make them usable for payments at nearby commercial facilities. Panasonic Connect evangelist Kunio Furuta expects the face recognition market to grow from 55.7 billion yen last year to around 130 billion yen by 2030. Meanwhile, the ID Authentication Technology Promotion Association has pointed out concerns about tracking user behavior and is urging businesses to operate carefully to avoid privacy violations.

Trial Holdings announced that for the fiscal year ending June 2026, net profit fell 70.0% year on year to 3.522 billion yen, but this was far above the company forecast of 500 million yen, and it raised the year-end dividend to 17 yen. Revenue rose 67.6% year on year to 1.347109 trillion yen, and operating profit rose 43.9% to 30.371 billion yen, driven by the consolidation of 245 stores following the full acquisition of Seiyu. On the other hand, non-operating expenses such as interest payments and income taxes swelled due to increased borrowings related to the Seiyu acquisition, causing ordinary profit to fall 9.1% to 20.186 billion yen and net profit to fall 70.0%. Special losses, which the company had conservatively factored in, came to only 1.919 billion yen, below expectations, leading net profit to come in 604.4% above plan. The share price surged 10.51% from the previous day to 3,680 yen on the following day, the 14th.