Panasonic Connect to Participate in Trial Experiment of Facial Recognition to Enable Walk-through Ticket Gates at East Japan Railway Company Shinkansen Station

Panasonic Connect Co., Ltd. announced that it will participate in a trial experiment with East Japan Railway Company (hereafter, JR East) and JR East Mechatronics Co., Ltd. to install a futuristic facial recognition ticket gate at the Nagaoka Station on the Jōetsu Shinkansen Line in autumn 2025, with the aim of examining the practicality of ‘walk-through ticket gates’.

JR East is promoting the ‘Suica (IC card) Renaissance’ project, which aims to evolve Suica into an even more advanced service platform. In order to go beyond the norm of simply touching the ticket gate, the company is studying the feasibility of walk-through ticket gates, and as part of this, will be conducting a trial experiment to study the practicality of facial recognition ticket gates.
By installing facial recognition ticket gates in this trial experiment, the company aims to contribute to improving services at ticket gates, such as by improving convenience for customers with baby carriages or large amounts of luggage by eliminating the need to insert tickets or touch Suica.

1. Period: Autumn 2025 – Spring 2026 (planned schedule)

2. Location: Nagaoka Stn. and Niigata Stn., Jōetsu Shinkansen

3. Eligible Users: Customers who have a Shinkansen commuter pass (Suica FREX or Suica FREX Pal) between Niigata Station and Nagaoka Station.

4. Roles of each party:

6. Facial recognition ticket gates installed:

For the experiment details, please find the press release issued by JR East below. (Japanese)
(Press release on April 8. 2025) https://www.jreast.co.jp/press/2025/20250408_ho03.pdf

Going forward, we will contribute to JR East's aim of ‘providing a convenient travel experience like no other’, and we will continue making further efforts to advance our technology and services in preparation for the verification experiment this autumn. We will also strive to support railway operators in enhancing customer convenience, a common theme for all railway operators, by making use of technologies centered around facial recognition and AI image sensing.

Our company, with the purpose of “Change Work, Advance Society, Connect to Tomorrow”, aims to bring about innovation in the workplace and create a sustainable society where diverse people can live happily.

Panasonic Connect’s facial recognition technology has been developed through more than 40 years of experience in camera image processing and deep learning technology to learn facial features, and has received the world’s highest rating* in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) facial recognition benchmark test (NIST FRVT 1:1). The system is not easily affected by facial orientation, changes over time, glasses, masks, etc., and can be used comfortably. So far, Panasonic Connect has deployed systems that apply facial recognition technology in such applications as rigorous and smooth identification at airports, ticketless entry at amusement parks, cashless payment at stores, and IC cardless entry/exit at offices, and have performed unique facial recognitions more than 300,000 times a day (according to our own research). The company will continue to contribute to the safe, secure, and efficient operation of various authentication sites by combining the world’s most advanced facial recognition technology with user experience (UX) design, which it has achieved through a series of verification experiments with client companies and other organizations.

About Panasonic Connect's facial recognition solution (Japanese site)
https://connect.panasonic.com/jp-ja/products-services/facial-recognition/top

* On November 6, 2022, it was published that Panasonic Connect ranked number 1 in the NIST FRVT 1:1 Report using "Mugshot" Front Facial data including racial and ageing which False acceptance rate (FAR) of 1/100,000. Also, On March 26, 2024 Panasonic Connect ranked number 1 in the NIST FRVT 1:N in the 2 category using "Mugshot" Front Facial data including ageing, 1.6 million registered users, and “Border” with face data from various angle of the face and deterioration in image quality. 1.6 million registered users.

Panasonic Connect Co., Ltd. was established on April 1, 2022 as part of the Panasonic Group’s switch to an operating company system. With roughly 29,400 employees worldwide and annual sales of JPY1,202.8 billion the company plays a central role in the growth of the Panasonic Group’s B2B solutions business and provides new value to its customers by combining advanced hardware, intelligent software solutions, and a wealth of knowledge in industrial engineering accumulated in its over 100-year history. The company’s purpose is to “Change Work, Advance Society, Connect to Tomorrow.” By driving innovation in the supply chain, public services, infrastructure, and entertainment sectors, Panasonic Connect aims to contribute to the realization of a sustainable society and to ensure well-being for all.

▼Panasonic Connect Website (English site)
https://connect.panasonic.com/en/
▼Panasonic Connect Newsroom (Japanese site)
https://connect.panasonic.com/jp-ja/newsroom
▼Panasonic Connect DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – Japanese site)
https://connect.panasonic.com/jp-ja/about/sustainability/dei

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