“MY JAPAN RAILWAY,” a joint campaign by six JR Group companies (JR Hokkaido, JR East, JR Central, JR West, JR Shikoku, and JR Kyushu) to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the opening of the railway, has won numerous major advertising awards, including Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show and the Clio Awards, and has been highly acclaimed both within Japan and internationally.
In this article, we will introduce “MY JAPAN RAILWAY,” including the background of its creation and the thoughts of the team.
What is the “MY JAPAN RAILWAY” digital stamp?
“MY JAPAN RAILWAY” is a web app campaign implemented as part of the “150th anniversary of the opening of the railway” by six JR Group companies (JR Hokkaido, JR East, JR Central, JR West, JR Shikoku, and JR Kyushu). To mark the 150th anniversary of the opening of the railway, we aimed to once again increase the joy of travel and affection for the railway, creating a system that would promote railway use while also providing a brand experience that would deepen the relationship with users.
GPS has been installed at eligible railway stations of the six JR Group companies, and when you enter the station range with your smartphone’s location service turned on, you can use the web app to get a digital stamp of that station. Although it is a digital stamp, the degree of color intensity (from faint to dark) changes depending on how it is pressed, just like old-fashioned analog station stamps, and it also records the date and time you pressed it as well as the number of times it has been pressed. In addition to the station stamps, there are also many stamps featuring trains as their motif, such as express trains and Shinkansen. There are also pins at places that used to be stations but are no longer stations, and you can get commemorative stamps at each one. Moreover, if you log in every day, you can also get a station staff stamp as a sign of respect for the people who work at stations.
The stamp designs allow you to feel the history of railways, including the JR station buildings and attractive tourist spots around the stations, and currently there are 1,063 types of stamps available, plus 50 work stamps and 18 seasonal stamps. In the two years and six months since the service began, it has been used by a total of over 1.8 million users.
A “gentle digital” idea born out of the COVID-19 pandemic
The impetus for the creation of “MY JAPAN RAILWAY” was the spread of COVID-19. The year 2022 marked the 150th anniversary of the opening of the railway, but it coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, making it difficult to hold events that draw large numbers of people or to hold real-life stamp rallies. However, with digital stamps, you can reduce the risk of contact with other people and complete the project yourself. When we decided to go with digital stamps and thought about what kind of image we wanted to convey, we came up with the image of something digital, but warm. When you go to local stations, you can often find notebooks in which you can write freely, and we thought it would be great if we could create that “feeling of people connecting through stations” digitally. Even in today’s world, people need a sense of security that comes from being connected…….. and that was the starting point for the idea of “MY JAPAN RAILWAY.”
Stamps may be faint or too dark. Analog stamp designs that become a personal favorite
More than 10 designers are involved in “MY JAPAN RAILWAY.” The design concept started from the idea that it would fun if we could make a public place like a station one’s own, and when thinking about how to achieve that, we felt that we needed something like “emotional attachment” in order to hold it within oneself. First of all, prior to starting the designs, the designers researched each station they were responsible for, taking in the knowledge that “this station has this kind of history” and “this kind of culture is rooted in it.”
When designers actually design something, they decide on a motif based on the information they get from their research, but because you can do anything on a computer, the stamps tend to end up looking quite bland. So we designed stamps with analog elements, such as a distinctive degree of faintness, to create a sense of attachment to them.
The moment when you press the stamp and feel a sense of emotion, such as “Oh, it’s too faint!” or “It’s too dark,” is also the moment when the stamp becomes yours. That is why we pay attention to details, such as designing the stamps to look faint.
Stamps that compile the thoughts of many people
As this project was a joint campaign involving six JR Group companies, each design was proposed to each of the six companies. After doing quite thorough research, we decided on the motif that we thought was “this is it!”, and proposed it to them, but because the JR teams have a special attachment to each and every station, they gave us feedback such as “maybe this motif isn’t quite right,” and we had to go back and forth a few times. Of course, the JR staff took into account the attachment that people who work at JR have to the stations, but they also carefully considered the feelings and intentions of the local governments and facility owners around the stations. Therefore, the “MY JAPAN RAILWAY” stamps are a compilation of the thoughts and feelings of many different people.
Sweeping the international awards. An opportunity to spread the appeal of Japan to the world
“MY JAPAN RAILWAY” won the Grand Prix in the Industry Craft at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2023. In 2024, it won the Black Pencil in the Art Direction category at D&AD, and has gone on to win more than 70 awards, including Grand Prix, at numerous international awards shows such as The One Show, the Clio Awards, and the London International Awards (LIA). In addition, it was a winner at the ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS and Tokyo ADC Awards, and has been highly acclaimed both within Japan and internationally. (As of September 2024)
In addition to the design, the judges commented that “it enhances the romance of the brand,” “it transforms everyday routine into an exciting experience,” and “it is filled with all of Japan’s history and culture.”
Photo on the right: Black Pencil in the Art Direction category at D&AD 2024. The Black Pencil is the highest D&AD award.
The production team also set “redesigning Japan’s infrastructure” as the theme of this campaign. We are delighted that winning international awards has provided us with a great opportunity to spread the appeal of Japan to the world.
Furthermore, having received numerous international awards, the production team believes that they were highly acclaimed for the way they appealed to the senses and emotions by combining analog and digital, rather than simply explaining what a company that provides a social infrastructure such as railways should do and what it wants to achieve in the future.
The service began in April 2022, and in the two years and six months up until October 2024, the total number of app users has exceeded 1.8 million, and approximately 11 million stamps have been pressed (including re-pressing). There has been a positive response both within Japan and internationally, and as a result, the anniversary campaign which was originally scheduled to last one year is now in its third year.
The activity was not just about branding; it was also an example of creating a system that directly promoted travel, resulting in an unprecedented promotion that transcended regional and corporate boundaries and increased profits.
Although future plans are still undecided, the system we have created is moving beyond just being a web app and is becoming a platform.
There are more than 9,000 stations across Japan. We would be happy if we could continue the project, and the project team still dreams of creating stamps outside of Japan and connecting Japan with the rest of the world with invisible rails.
