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A public utility charge collection service was initiated by Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd. and Tokyo Electric Power Company in October 1987, after GS1 Japan established a code system using EAN-13 symbols in the same year.
Subsequently, most of the Japanese convenience store chains have joined and the system has been
expanded to include gas bills, telephone bills, insurance fees, national pension premiums, and various tax bills. The number of bill issuers has reached a figure of 4,000 (including the service sector and public bodies), the number of convenience store chain offering the service system is about 30 (40,000 stores), and the total collected amount exceeds 6trillion yen (US$ 5.4 billion)/year. The initial system used 3 or 4 EAN-13 barcodes to encode the necessary information. To enable operation ease and efficiency, new system using single GS1-128 barcode was introduced in May 2001.
Fig.1.3.1-1 Sample Payment Slip
Fig.1.3.1-2 Code Structure (44 digits) for Payment Slip
Technical Notes of GS1-128 application for payment slip
- Most POS barcode readers used in convenience stores in Japan are handheld CCD scanners, which read both the EAN-13 symbol and the high-precision GS1-128 symbol printed on the payment slip.
- The width of the reading window of the handheld scanner is 60 mm, and GS1-128 must fit into this 60-mm width to enable all symbols to be read in one scan.
- Thus, the width of minimum module X is reduced (X = 0.169 mm for 300/600 dpi, and X = 0.158 mm for 480 dpi), which requires high-precision printing.
- To print the GS1-128 symbol within 60 mm, necessary data are integrated into one single AI (91) to
specify the contents, number of digits, and order of the individual data (see Fig.1.3.1-2).
Alternative payment solutions using the bill:
A new service has been recently launched that uses this payment slip to pay public utility charges. Users scan the GS1-128 symbol printed on the bill with their camera phone, then they make payments (withdrawals from their bank accounts, or credit card payments) directly from their phones. With the payment slip in hand, users do not even have to go to convenience stores to pay these bills.
Most people typically had to pay their utility bills during the limited office hours of banks or post offices. The introduction of the public utility payment slip initially freed people from such time constraints. And now the new service is about to free people from the constraints of payment locations. Several companies have already begun to offer this service, and the total amount of payments that will use this method is predicted to expand in the future.
Fig.1.3.1-3 New service - Scan and pay with a mobile phone
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