Tobu Railway Co., Ltd.

On July 15, 2026, Tobu Railway began service for Tokyo's first "walk-through facial recognition gates" at Ikebukuro and Kamitabashi stations on the Tojo Line. The service is available to passengers holding PASMO commuter passes for sections including the two stations. The gates utilize the biometric authentication service "SAKULaLa," developed jointly with Hitachi, where cameras installed on the automatic ticket gates recognize faces to verify identity, allowing passengers to pass without stopping. Tobu Railway had previously introduced the system at Tobu Utsunomiya Station in May 2026, and for these two stations, existing automatic ticket gates were modified to accommodate the system. To expand the number of stations with the system, the company has collaborated with OMRON Social Solutions, Nippon Signal, and Toshiba to enhance the versatility of the facial recognition system. On the security front, the system combines Hitachi's "PBI" technology with Panasonic Connect's facial recognition technology, storing biometric information in the cloud in a form that cannot be restored, and generating and deleting secret keys each time. Ikebukuro Station, with an average of about 420,000 users per day, is the company's largest station and includes commercial facilities, making it a model case for the implementation.

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.

Hitachi and Tobu Railway, among others, launched a face recognition system at the ticket gates of Ikebukuro Station on the Tobu Tojo Line on the 15th. By registering facial data and commuter pass information in advance, passengers can pass through the gates hands-free. This is the first deployment at a major terminal station in Tokyo, and for now it is limited to travel between Kami-Itabashi Station and Ikebukuro Station on the Tobu Tojo Line. The system was jointly developed with three ticket gate manufacturers including Toshiba, as well as Panasonic Connect, and can be built by adding cameras to existing gates, so expansion to other railway companies is also under consideration. The partners also aim to promote it as a face recognition payment service at commercial facilities around Ikebukuro Station.