JR companies to unify their separate "online reservation services" for the first time—four companies agree to improve convenience

On September 19, 2025, four companies—JR East, JR Central, JR West, and JR Kyushu—agreed to fully integrate their separately operated online reservation services ("Ekinet," "EX Service/Smart EX," "e5489," and "JR Kyushu Internet Train Reservation") for the first time. As the first step, on October 4, 2025, they will introduce mutual login authentication (single sign-on) between JR Central's "EX Service" and JR West's "e5489." Following this, in the fiscal year 2026, they plan to integrate functions between JR Central and JR West, and by the fiscal year 2027, JR East and JR Kyushu will also gradually join. The goal is to provide a seamless experience across multiple services, such as "no need to re-authenticate" and "cross-service viewing of reservation information" for trips spanning different services. For example, for a journey like "Sendai → Tokyo (Ekinet) + Tokyo → Nagoya (Smart EX)," it is expected that in the future, users will be able to seamlessly move to the purchase page by carrying over authentication from one service, and view reservation information in a unified manner. Challenges remain, such as the handling of non-member companies like JR Hokkaido and JR Shikoku, certain ticket types and collection methods, the design of external ID integration, and the necessity of re-authentication for personal information protection and payment. However, this marks a significant step forward in overcoming the long-standing "division."