An article management system according to the present invention includes: a reader antenna (102) including an open-type transmission line terminated in an impedance matched state; an RF tag (104) that is placed at a location that is electromagnetically coupled to the reader antenna (102) and is visible from the reader antenna (102) in a state where a management target article (105) is placed in the vicinity of the RF tag; a management target article arrangement region in which the management target article (105) is placed, the management target article arrangement region being set in a location where the management target article (105) is electromagnetically coupled to a tag antenna of the RF tag (104); and an RFID reader (103) that sends a transmitted signal to the reader antenna (102) and receives a response signal output from the tag antenna via the reader antenna (102).