The Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation, or Toei has pronounced that free Wi-Fi will be provided for commuters and travelers on its Asakusa subway line beginning Feb. 5. From there, the bureau hopes to range those wireless services to all lines before March 2020.
The plan addresses one of foreigners’ major gripes about Tokyo: the lack of complimentary mobile internet.
“I was surprised to find that there is not much free Wi-Fi access available across Japan,” before saying that his solution was to buy a SIM card.” -Alex Wang, 28, tourist
Twenty airports and seaports across the country have already begun similar initiatives, such as Ogasawara which has pledged to be Wi-Fi ready by March of next year. However, those deliberate moving plans have by no means met the appetite of residents and travelers, who protest about absence of Wi-Fi at hotels, railways and airports.
Tokyo transportation bureau spokesperson told Nikkei. To address those obstructions, the government is “considering the expanding of free Wi-Fi access beyond the in-train service.” – Shunji Yoshikawa
But such indefinite pledges may frustrate Japan’s impatient netizens, especially considering that even Mt. Fuji already has free wi-fi available at it’s peak for tourists to upload timely selfies to their social media platform of choice. So far the deficiency is one of the scarce faults on Japan’s highly lauded tourism industry. For instance, the author of a recent Forbes article, who called the country “already marvellous” cited the lack of wireless internet as one of its few flaws, before adding:
“I have also noticed a proliferation of public service Wi-Fi “hot spots”— a step toward answering a major complaint…”
Resource: Tokyo Weekender
