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Decision wasn’t made by the transportation bureau, though.

Generally speaking, when the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation has an announcement to make, it has something to do with trains, buses, or some other form of public transit. One of the organization’s latest statements, though, is about phones. Specifically, it’s about public phones inside subway stations, and how they’re going to be disappearing.

Tokyo is actually big enough that it has two different subway networks. The bureau’s announcement affects the government-managed Toei Subway system, which consists of the Asakusa, Mito, Oedo, and Shinjuku Lines, and the timetable is for none of their stations to have payphone by November of 2028 at the latest.

This isn’t a change that’s being initiated by the Tokyo government, however. Instead, it’s telecommunications operator NTT East that’s saying it wants to remove all of its phones from Toei Subway stations, and the bureau is simply passing on the company’s decision to the general public.

There’s a strong argument to be made that, in this day and age, public phones rarely serve any significant purpose. It’s not unusual for even junior high school kids to have their own smartphones, so pretty much anyone who’s going to be out and about in the city already has a way to make telephone calls, in addition to using messaging and voice chat apps for necessary communication with family, friends, classmates, or colleagues.

▼ Plus you can’t read SoraNews24 on a public phone, and just look at how annoyed this guy is by that shortcoming.

However, pay phones also have a role as disaster-relief infrastructure. Not only can they be used to contact medical and fire services, public phone networks can also be used, for free, in the case of events such as earthquakes and tsunami to make calls and contact voice message services. They provide a critical lifeline for people in disaster-stricken areas whose phones may have been lost or damaged, or who may not have access to a power supply or charging equipment after their phone’s battery runs out.

Because of that, under Japan’s Telecommunications Business Act, licensed payphone providers are required to maintain a certain concentration in areas in which they operate. Specifically, at least one public phone must be installed and in working order for every 500 square meters (5,382 square feet) in urban communities, or one phone for every square kilometer in other areas. These phone, classified as Type-1 Public Phones, should be placed either on public roads or in facilities facing public roads that the general public can access 24 hours a day.

Public phones inside rail stations, however, are not classified as Type-1 Public Phones, most likely because the stations close for several hours at night. Because of that, station phones fall into the category of Type-2 Public Phones, which can be installed or removed at NTT East’s discretion, without any need to obtain permission from the Tokyo government. As such, this appears to be a pure business decision, with NTT East no longer feeling that its in-station phones justify the cost of maintaining them compared to the undoubtedly reduced revenue they bring in.

The phones’ removal is likely to occur gradually over the next two years, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation says that each station will announce its removal date at least two weeks ahead of time. The bureau also recommends that those in need of a payphone utilize the search function on NTT East’s website here, though that, of course, isn’t going to be much help to anyone without a smartphone or other connectable communications device already on them.

Source: Tokyo Metropolitan Government via Jin, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
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Source: SORA NEWS24