Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. (hereafter Toppan Printing; Head office: Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo; President & CEO: Naoki Adachi) and Nippon Engineering Corporation (hereafter Nippon Engineering; Head office: Buzen, Fukuoka Prefecture; President : Hifumi Takita) have developed 2 types of card media that have paper as the main constituent of the body. These are a contact IC card called "KAMICARD" and a contactless IC card called "RFID-KAMICARD". As an ecological product which can contribute to the reduction of environmental damage, sample shipments will begin in March 2009 and full-scale sales will commence in April 2009.
A "Recycling Loop" process has also been developed for the recycling of these products. It is planned that an operational structure will be constructed in Japan during 2009 after experimental verification.

Copyright 2009 TOPPAN PRINTING CO., LTD.

Features of the "KAMICARD" contact IC card
Since the card body is made of especially hardened paper layers without adding any plastic additives or laminating plastic foils, durability (heat resistance, water resistance, oil resistance, physical strength, etc.) has been significantly improved in comparison with existing paper cards.
Features
*Functional suitability as an ID card or gift card.
*Precise cavity forming by a milling machine and the embedding of a contact IC chip module is possible. Durability based on ISO7816 is ensured.
*Excellent processing suitability for SIM and can also be used for mobile phone USIM cards.
*Since the base material is 100% high quality paper that is almost entirely cellulose, if buried in the soil the card will biodegrade.
*Due to the characteristics of the material, it is suitable as an alternative fuel (RPF*1) to fossil fuels and thus can reduce CO2.

Features of the "RFID KAMICARD" contactless IC card
Normal paper is used for the card body and RFID assembly is achieved by combining IC chip mounting technology with original antenna circuit forming technology (patent pending) that enables the antenna circuit to be formed and fixed without embedding it on an insoluble material such as paper.
Features
*Since it is possible to form the IC antenna inlet on paper, RFID can be used not just for ID, transport tickets and point cards, but also for various mass application form labels currently distributed in paper form such as home delivery, logistics, and check-in air baggage tags.
*Since the card consists of a normal paper base, copper antenna and the IC chip (silicon material), it is possible to completely separate and recover the resources in the pulp processing system in a paper recycling plant.
___High quality paper can be recycled back into paper, craft paper can be recycled into paper carton.
___The antenna material is disassembled and collected with minimum energy and recycled as a valuable copper resource.
___The silicon material from the IC chip can be reused in cement material as sludge (reinforcing agent).

Background
*Around 200 million card media items are distributed in Japan annually and the global figure is several billion. Plastic material from oil refining is used because the material is easy to obtain and process.
*Currently very few of those billions of used cards are recycled, and most are incinerated or put into landfill as industrial waste. There is concern for the burden this puts on the global environment.
*Toppan Printing and Nippon Engineering developed these products by focusing on paper, which is receiving attention as a renewable and carbon neutral material.
Recycle Loop
Renewable material from forest resources is used effectively so as the total CO2 volume in the entire cycle is kept constant. An increase in the CO2 level from the incineration of fossil resources is prevented by using the refuse material (RPF) as an alternative to fossil fuels.

Target number of companies using the products
Overseas
FY2009 : 20 companies
FY2010 : 40 companies
FY2011 : 50 companies

Japan
FY2009 : 2 companies
FY2010 : 5 companies
FY2011 : 10 companies

Sales targets
FY2009 : 1.5 billion yen
FY2010 : 2.5 billion yen
FY2011 : 4 billion yen

Roles of the two companies
Toppan Printing : Product development, manufacturing and sales for KAMICARD and RFID-KAMICARD
Nippon Engineering : Manufacture and supply of KAMICARD materials and development of processing equipment for RFID-KAMICARD

Future developments
When these products were introduced at Cartes 2008 (one of the world’s largest card related exhibitions, held in Paris in November 2008), the product concept was well received and there was significant response from European and American companies.
Currently, Toppan Printing is targeting large scale companies overseas in advancing the application of these products as a substitute for plastic cards and after gaining worldwide recognition will further promote their spread in Japan.


*1 RPF :
RPF is an abbreviation of Refuse Paper & Plastic Fuel and is a fossil fuel alternative that, in contrast to the general waste used in RDF (refuse derived fuel), uses as a raw material good quality industrial waste (with no foreign substances) separated from private companies. Its use in thermal recycling is increasing rapidly because the combustion of RPF is regarded as a contributing factor in reducing CO2 since it may stop the combustion of fresh fossil fuels. In addition, the manufacture of RPF itself is possible with low energy.