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INTRODUCTION |
| Over the years, millions of different phonecards have been
produced in Japan featuring almost every motif imaginable. Since many of the
more popular cards are only produced in small numbers, however, finding the
card you are after is not always an easy task, and the value of highly
sought after cards can soon sky-rocket. Despite the ubiquity of Japanese
phonecards in collections around the world, there is surprisingly little
information about them available on the web (and even less in English). This
page is an attempt to remedy this situation by providing an overview of
Japanese phonecards, particularly with regard to the different categories
and code numberings. Detailed notes about magnetic NTT public issue cards
were kindly provided by
Justin Giffin. |
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HISTORY |
| Phonecards ("terehon-kaado" or "tereka" in Japanese) were
first produced in Japan by the national carrier, Den Den Kosha, in 1982 for
promotional purposes. The first cards for sale to the public became
available in 1983 for use in the lime-coloured analogue payphones that
quickly sprang up in every corner of the country. |
|
NTT's Green Public Payphones |
| Not long after, Den Den Kosha was privatised; in 1985 the Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT) Corporation was authorised to provide
domestic services, while Kokusai Denshin Denwa (KDD; Overseas Communications
Japan) was established to
handle international dialling. In 1990, grey-coloured digital phones were
introduced to be used alongside the analogue green phones. Cards produced
before this time can only be used in the remaining green phones, whereas
cards produced after this time can be used in any payphone capable of
reading magnetic cards. |
|
NTT's Grey Public Payphones |
|
A third kind of card phone with a pink body and black
face (known as a "pink phone") can also sometimes be seen; introduced in
1989, these are mostly for sale to companies and businesses for use in their
foyers or other confined spaces.
Although other private companies - DainiDenDen (DDI)
and Japan Telecom for domestic calls; International Telecom Japan (ITJ) and
International Digital Communications (IDJ) for overseas calls - have since
entered the market, NTT and KDD's close ties to the government mean that
both continue to dominate the market. As a consequence, the vast majority of
Japanese phonecards are those produced for NTT phones based on Tamura's
magnetic strip technology. |
|
More about
magnetic phonecards
(so far all of the Japanese phonecards showing Volleyball are magnetic cards). |
|
In 1999, NTT introduced a new kind of phonecard (and
payphone) in an effort to combat phonecard fraud. Known as IC cards, these
phonecards contain a microchip for storing units but are otherwise very
different to the modular chip cards found in other countries. They are only
slightly thicker than the magnetic cards and use a contactless method for
transferring data, so the microchip is not visible. Similar to Italian
phonecards, one corner of the card must be removed before they can be used.
Although the number of IC phones has increased recently, the pervasiveness
of magnetic phonecards and the phones that use them, combined with the
explosion in mobile phone use, mean that IC cards have failed to increase in
popularity. Consequently only a limited number of (mostly unimaginative)
designs for these phonecards have been produced so far. |
| More about
IC phonecards.
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|
NTT's IC Payphones |
| A limited number of modular-type chip cards have also been
issued by NTT's competitors for international dialling. |
| More
about
chip phonecards by other companies. |