Sales tax increase, electronic cash and railway fares

For their report on goo Research’s fourth regular survey into electronic money, japan.internet.com took a look at an interesting aspect, the potential for discounted rail fares when using electronic cash.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 12th of February 2014 1,078 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.5% of the sample were male, 0.5% in their teens, 11.6% in their twenties, 22.4% in their thirties, 32.6% in their forties, and 33.0% aged fifty or older.

With sales tax going up from 5% to 8% in April, although currently all train tickets are rounded to the nearest 10 yen, some transport operators are planning on increasing fares by exactly 3% (actually by 2.857%, but you know what I mean!) then rounded to the nearest yen, but only for electronic cash users. As most of the ticket vending machines cannot handle one and five yen coins, for cash users the tax increase will be rounded up to the nearest ten yen.

Research results

Q1: Do you use electronic cash? (Sample size=1,078)

Yes	66.6%
Used to, but not now (to SQ1)	7.9%
No, never (to SQ1)	25.5%

Q1SQ1: Certain stretches of railway lines will become cheaper when using electronic cash. Do you think you will start using electronic cash because of this? (Sample size=360)

Yes	45.8%
No (to SQ2)	54.2%

Q1SQ2: Why will you not start using electronic cash? (Sample size=195)

Don’t use trains	53.8%
Don’t want to use electronic cash	29.2%
My line will not have one yen pricing	8.7%
I only use a season ticket	4.1%
Cash is cheaper	2.6%
Other	1.5%