MARS (ticket reservation system)

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MARS (マルス, Marusu), short for Magnetic-electronic Automatic Reservation System, is a train ticket reservation system used by the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and travel agencies in Japan. It was developed jointly by Hitachi and the former Japanese National Railways (JNR), and inherited by the Railway Information Systems Company [ja] (JR Systems), which is jointly owned by the seven railway companies of the JR Group: the East Japan Railway Company (JR East), Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central), West Japan Railway Company (JR West), Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido), Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku), Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu), and Japan Freight Railway Company (JR Freight).^[1]

The MARS system used in JR ticket offices is Japan’s largest online real-time system, providing a year-round availability of 99.999%.^[2] It offers a range of services, including seat reservations on Shinkansen and Limited Express trains and fare calculation for basic fare tickets, commuter passes, and express tickets.^[3] It is currently connected to approximately 10,000 terminals at JR ticket offices and travel agencies, as well as to online systems run by the individual JR companies.^[3] The system is accessed about 8 million times every day, with a daily average of over 1.9 million tickets sold.^[3]