In conventional article management systems, a problem has been presented in that the degree of control over how articles are managed has not been adequate. An article management system having: a line constituted by an open-type transfer line; a distribution area in which articles to be managed are placed, the articles to be managed being placed in the distribution area; an RF tag provided with a tag transmission unit for electromagnetic coupling with the line of the distribution area for the articles to be managed; a signal communication unit provided to the line; an antenna for electromagnetic coupling with the signal communication unit; and an RFID reader for sending out the transmission signal to the line via the antenna, and receiving a response signal output by the tag transmission unit via the line. Any variations in the operating characteristics of the tag transmission unit caused by the articles to be managed are detected as a result of variations in the intensity or phase of the signal reflected from the RF tag, whereby the presence of an article to be managed is detected.