Common IC card ticket system for railways and buses around Kanto region

• An IC card ticket will improve railways and buses in Kanto region (in Japanese), JR East press release 28/7/03.
  (http://www.jreast.co.jp/press/2003_1/20030712.pdf)

The technological limitation that the passengers should not have multiple contactless IC cards made this kind of decision much earlier than I expected. It is still unclear how they will cope with discounts in the way "Bus Common Card" (magnetic) have given to passengers, which I presume will be the same as in Hong Kong where different fares apply for passengers with Octopus Card. I hope the new card will practically eliminate the need for commuting tickets by effectively larger discounts, although unlikely...