Thoughts on Apple Pay ICOCA

With the successful launch of Mobile ICOCA (2023-03-22) on Osaifu Keitai Android, it’s time to think about Apple Pay ICOCA coming later this year, most likely in October to align with iOS 17. And believe me, Apple Pay ICOCA will launch sooner than later because JR West will never achieve their stated goal of 5 million Mobile ICOCA users without Apple Pay. However the ICOCA service menu on Apple Pay will be different than Suica or PASMO. Apple Pay Suica works out of the box without Suica App or registering an account. Apple Pay ICOCA however, will require ICOCA App and a registered WESTER ID. Let’s take a look.

Apple Pay ICOCA but only with a WESTER ID and ICOCA app
The Mobile ICOCA app for Osaifu Keitai Android allows registered WESTER users to add a new ICOCA, transfer a Mobile ICOCA card (from another device), reissue a Mobile ICOCA (from a lost or damaged device). The key point is that: only registered WESTER users can create and add a Mobile ICOCA card. No plastic card transfers to mobile are allowed because they are unregistered cards. And this means ICOCA will not have native Apple Wallet add card support like Suica and PASMO because transit cards added natively in Wallet are technically ‘unregistered’ cards.

When you take a look at the transit card list in Wallet for the United States you’ll notice that Chicago Ventra and Portland HOP are not listed even though they appear on the Apple support page: Where you can ride transit using Apple Pay. This is because even though these cards can be added to Wallet, they have the same limits Mobile ICOCA does: only registered cards can only be added from an app, plastic card transfers to Wallet not supported.

JR West is doing this because they are positioning Mobile ICOCA as part of the JR West WESTER portal service for points, eTickets, and more. You have to have a WESTER ID to add and use Mobile ICOCA. Why? I suspect it has to do with the end of paper ticket coupons, the old reliable buy 10 get one free. These were incredibly popular in the JR West Kansai area and said to be one of the reasons why it took so long for ICOCA to go mobile. Having WESTER and Mobile ICOCA as one package deal means JR West has the mobile equivalent of paper ticket coupons in place using WESTER point rewards.

JR East’s focus on the other hand, is all about growing the Mobile Suica user base with JRE POINT as an option that adds value to being a Mobile Suica user. Yes JRE POINT and Suica offer the mobile equivalent of paper ticket coupons too, but the JR East service ecosystem is messy. Users have to register and juggle separate accounts for Mobile Suica, JRE POINT, Eki-Net, VIEW CARD and so on. JR West is shoehorning all of their services into one WESTER ID to streamline everything and make it easier for users.

Will Apple Pay ICOCA have a recharge button?
One of the very nice things about Suica is that anybody can add it to Wallet and recharge it with Apple Pay credit cards. Apple Pay Suica Commuter Pass users can also renew passes in Wallet directly. Will ICOCA have the same? I sure hope so because if JR West wants to keep Apple Pay at arms length, they may very well restrict all recharge and commuter pass renewal to ICOCA app. No add money button in Wallet, no recharge with Apple Pay.

Again this is what we already see with Apple Pay Ventra and Apple Pay HOP: card issue, recharge, commute plan renewal is all restricted to registered account users in the app. Is JR West shooting themselves in the foot by restricting everything to WESTER ID and ICOCA App? We’ll have the answer if Mobile ICOCA doesn’t make the 5 million membership target number that JR West hopes to achieve by 2027.

JR East achieved 20 million Mobile Suica users because of their full embrace of Apple Pay and unregistered Mobile Suica cards. Users can add and use Suica on iPhone and Apple Watch right out of the box without a Mobile Suica account or an app. It just works. It’s the deal same for Mobile Suica on Garmin, Fitbit and Pixel Watch. The Mobile Suica service ecosystem may be messy, but it works on a huge variety of mobile devices.

The JR West approach is streamlined but does risk reducing the potential Mobile ICOCA user base by restricting it to WESTER ID users, the potential could shrink even more if they restrict Wallet recharge functions to their iPhone ICOCA app. Because there will be no way in hell that Apple Watch users can recharge Apple Pay ICOCA without an iPhone the way you can with Suica or PASMO. Little details make all the difference. It all comes down to business choices: JR West wants WESTER ecosystem users, JR East wants Suica users.

With JR West having closed the door to unregistered Mobile ICOCA, Kansai users who don’t need commuter passes or WESTER points will use Mobile Suica. Actually, they already are.

Wallet app can only natively add transit cards that do not require registration to use, this is why HOP and Ventra cards are supported in Apple Pay but do not show in Wallet app. They can only be added with an app and registered account.
If JR West removes add money and commuter pass renewal buttons from Wallet and keeps them locked away in ICOCA app, they can forget about achieving their 5 million Mobile ICOCA user target
JR East embracing Apple Pay and native Wallet functions allowed them to grow Mobile Suica to undreamed of user growth.

Migrating to Apple Pay Suica Off-Peak Commute Plan

This video explains the process of refunding a current valid Apple Pay Suica regular commute plan and purchasing the new off-peak commute plan available from today (2023-03-18) with Suica App v3.2.

Related posts also explain off-peak commute plans and barrier-free station tax train fare increases:

Apple Pay Suica • PASMO Commute Plan Guide
The ¥10 barrier-free train station tax fare increase
How much does Suica Off-Peak Commuter Pass really save you?

The ¥10 barrier-free train station tax fare increase

The railway station barrier-free fee system is “a Japanese railway fare system established with the aim of promoting barrier-free railway stations in urban areas” by leveraging a fee on urban railway users in Tokyo, Kansai and Fukuoka areas. It is a barrier-free train station tax if you will, added to regular adult fare and commuter passes but generally not child fares or school commuter passes. The barrier-free tax will cover station infrastructure costs for adding platform doors, elevators, etc., to the designated metropolitan area stations.

From 2023-03-18 most railway companies in the Tokyo area, both JR East and non-JR, raised transit fares to pay this barrier-free station tax. Here is the breakdown for the Greater Tokyo area focusing on JR East.

Suica
A ¥10 fare increase for paper tickets and regular Suica/Transit IC cards In the JR East designated barrier-free tax zone. Suica Commute Plan increases within the same tax zone are listed below. The overall average fare increase is 1.4%.

The Barrier-Free fee increase to JR East regular adult fare and commuter passes in the designated tax zone

Non-JR East Tokyo area railway companies are raising regular fares by ¥10 but commuter passes are a different story.

While barrier-free stations are good thing and not a big tax to pay for all that new infrastructure, the timing could not be worse. Living costs are rising across the board, little increases add up, eating into salaries that are not rising much, if at all. Each transfer on a multiple transit line routes now has increased fare with each transit operator section. For example: my work commute uses JR East and Tokyu lines, the old fare was ¥419, new fare is ¥457.

To help ease the pain, JR East is offering Off-Peak Suica Commuter Passes (plastic)/Commute Plans (Mobile Suica), that offer a 10% discount with the following condition: Off-Peak passes are valid when used outside the designated peak time of the commute plan entry station. If you enter the start point station during peak time, your Suica Off-Peak commute pass is ignored and Suica balance is used to pay fare.

In real world use it simply means if you have an Suica Off-Peak Commuter Pass, don’t enter your start station during the station designed morning ‘Peak Time’ on work days. If you do the commuter pass doesn’t work. Any time outside of ‘Peak Time’ you are good to do. This is much better than the convoluted, often confusing Suica Off-Peak JRE POINT Campaign that ends March 31.

Apple Pay Suica users can purchase Off-Peak commute plans in an upcoming version of Suica App (v5.2.1), but you must purchase a new pass. Regular commute plans can only be renewed as regular commute plans, they cannot be migrated to off-peak plans. School commute plans and passes will not be charged the barrier-free tax which is good news. Another bonus: high school and jr. high school students can add and use Mobile Suica school commute plans staring March 18.

I migrated to an Off-Peak on March 18 and posted a video showing the cancellation~refund of a regular pass, and purchase of a new Off-Peak pass.

Suica App v5.2.1 coming this March will support Off-Peak and High School/Jr.High School student commute plans

PASMO
The situation for PASMO private rail and other non-JR East rail operators is varied:

Keio and Keikyu are raising fares later this year in October.

Regular adult fares are up ¥10 in line with JR East, some have also raised child fares by ¥10. Commuter passes are generally being raised more, and there are no off-peak commuter passes. Kansai area transit operators are raising fares on April 1, Fukuoka on March 27. Be sure to check how the fare and commuter pass increases apply to your local commute situation.

I have update the Apple Pay Suica • PASMO Commute Plan Guide with Suica Off-Peak Commute Plan details.

Related: How much does Suica Off-Peak Commuter Pass really save you?

Published 2023-01-15, Updated 2023-03-24

How much does Suica Off-Peak Commuter Pass really save you?

Peak Time at JR Koenji station
JR East stations in the Off-Peak commute zone have posted station peak times and gate displays will also change during peak time
JR East Off-Peak Commuter Pass PR vid

With the new train schedule and barrier-free transit tariff going into effect on March 18, current Suica Commuter pass users like myself who use the JRE POINT Off-Peak Commuter Point Service that ends this month, face a dilemma: does the Off-Peak Commuter Pass offer the same level of JRE POINT reward savings? Let’s face it, in these inflationary and looming tax increase times, pinching every point to yen counts.

It comes down to 3 choices: (1) a more expensive regular commuter pass that is difficult to swallow without the off-peak transit point return, (2) a less expensive Suica Off-Peak commuter pass without off-peak transit points, (3) no commuter pass with repeat transit points.

As my work place pays commuting expenses based on regular non-commuter pass transit fare, going with the less expensive off-peak commuter pass lets me pocket the difference. So my choice basically comes down to off-peak commuter pass or no commuter pass with repeat transit points, depending on which one gives better JRE POINT returns, better purchase price savings, or both.

Here is a comparison of the price increases for my 6 month commuter pass between JR East Asagaya and Tokyu Ikegami. The route is Chuo-Yamanote-transfer at Gotanda-Ikegami. The JR East portion covers 11 stations and 15 kilometers of track. Tokyu covers 12 stations and 11 kilometers of track.

Right away we can see that the JR East fare increase basically adds the barrier-free tariff, a 1.4% increase. The Tokyu fare increase is more than just the tariff, a lot more at 13.8%, likely including electricity price increases, salary increases, and what not. Tokyu also does not offer an off-peak option.

Now that we have the new commuter pass prices for both JR East and Tokyu, let’s run a simulation to find which configuration has the best JRE POINT returns. For the latter I used the very handy JRE POINT simulator, highly recommended for running reward point numbers. Remember, that off-peak and repeat points only apply to JR East fares.

As my work place covers the regular fare price, old and new regular fare difference is set at zero. Off-Peak points are calculated for 6 months based on 2022 returns. Repeat and recharge points are calculated on 20 round trips between Asagaya and Gotanda a month x 6 months for old and new fares. The return is the purchase difference plus JRE POINT with 1 point = 1 yen.

The simulation results are pretty much in line with my expectations. Suica Off-Peak commuter passes do give you the best value, by a little bit, especially when your company is reimbursing you at regular fare rates, which many companies seem to do. You also get the best value when your commute is exclusive to JR East lines as JR East has not raised fare increases, only adding the barrier-free tariff. The return drops when including connecting non-JR East lines but still give the best overall return. One thing is for certain: if you ride JR East lines regularly with Suica and are not registered with JRE POINT, you are throwing money away.

Gird yourself for the March 18 Suica Off-Peak launch because there will be a online crush of people like me, cancelling and refunding regular passes, and purchasing new off-peak passes. And don’t forget that date is also the launch of Mobile Suica passes for high school and junior high school students. Don’t be surprised if Suica App has a meltdown from the stampede. Good luck with simulations and finding the best way to save on transit costs.

Mobile Suica support has posted special help pages for refunding current regular passes for new off-peak passes and with renewing regular passes to include newly added stations (available from March 18).

Final frontiers: How Suica 2.0 will solve the IC fare region barrier problem

The Suica cross region problem, no thru transit going from the Suica area to the TOICA area for example, is a well known and criticized shortcoming of the Transit IC system. There has been some recent progress with cross region thru transit commuter passes but barriers remain for regular Suica use, which is a headache for both local residents and longer distance travelers. Despite all the fancy technology, the cheapest thru transit fare choice is paper tickets.

The entire Suica/PASMO service region is huge but covers less than half of the entire JR East rail network

A lesser known Suica barrier remains on the JR East network: Suica service region gaps. Currently there are 3 Suica regions: Tokyo, Sendai and Niigata. There are also some curious gaps between them as illustrated below:

The Tokyo~Sendai Suica Gap
The Tokyo~Niigata Suica Gap

Filling the Suica gaps
Back in 2019 JR East CEO Yuji Fukusawa said the company planned to have 100% Suica deployment by March 2022 but that didn’t happen. Why? Transit use killing COVID, the resulting red ink and redeployed resources are a big reason of course, but system development snags certainly contributed to the missed deadline. There was also a shift from a narrow focus of a lower cost Suica system to a wider focus of Suica 2 in 1, Cloud Suica and a cloud based central fare processing system. JR East’s Suica vision is evolving to a wider, transit based service platform encompassing a range of technologies, with FeliCa as one component of a larger whole flexible new system.

In October 2022 JR Central announced that TOICA is expanding to all JR Central lines and stations. The pressure is now on JR East to complete their delayed Suica rollout to all stations first. But there is something else: it’s an open secret that JR East hosts the TOICA system. JR Central would not make such a big TOICA commitment unless JR East had a new system in place to facilitate the expansion. This new system, which I call Suica 2.0, starts operation on May 27 in the Tohoku region.

The launch brings Suica to 45 stations in the Akita, Aomori and Morioka regions but only 9 of these are fully automatic transit gates similar to what you find in Tokyo area stations (the same new QR equipped gates shown in the press announcement are installed in Yoyogi station), the rest, 36 in all, are Suica 2.0 validators. Performance is an obvious concern. Suica users are accustomed to the fastest transit gate fare processing speeds on the planet. Will Suica 2.0 performance satisfy an Suica 1.0 experienced customer base with high expectations? To understand how Suica 1.0 fare gates achieve speedy performance apart from FeliCa technology, we need to examine why Suica regions exist and how they relate to transit gate performance.

Transit gates have very little memory, most of it dedicated to their task of local processing Suica fare at the exit point. Low overhead is a necessity. They can’t hold massive fare tables, hot card lists, dead card lists and so on. Only the bare minimum information required to do the local processing job is periodically synced with the central server. Limiting fare processing to specific heavy use regions is a necessary strategy in keeping the local fare processing overhead low and speedy. This is why a Tokyo Suica/PASMO region transit exit gate only processes the fare from a Suica or PASMO (or any Transit IC card) that started the journey in the same region.

It’s the same situation writ large with different transit IC card regions. Border stations like Atami (Suica and TOICA) have 2 sets of exit gates: one for travelers from the Suica region, one for travelers from the TOICA region. Suica/TOICA cross region thru transit is limited to special cross region commuter passes and those are limited to specific cross region stations, again to keep the local processing overhead low.

It’s important to note however that IC coverage extensions to border stations with 2 sets of different gates and cross region commuter passes, are very recent 2021 developments. This is the JR Group companies laying the foundation to remove IC transit barriers in the near future. Because Suica 2.0 can process any and all Transit IC fare configurations, transit gate memory limits for local processing are no longer a concern. The barriers will come down when gate hardware is updated and Suica 2.0 cloud servers are in place.

Atami Station has 2 sets of gates for IC card travelers from difference regions.
The Gotemba line is another JR Central TOICA line that docks with JR East Suica at Kōzu Station.

Suica 1.0 local processing and Suica 2.0 cloud processing switching
But final exit performance is a concern. Does this mean that eventually all Suica fare processing will be done in the cloud and users can kiss the good old speedy Suica gate experience goodbye? I don’t think so. In fact I think region barriers will stay in place, figuratively and only from the internal system perspective. Why? Because they are extremely useful for highly optimized, low overhead fare system performance based on 22 years of Suica operations and traffic analysis.

Here’s my scenario of how it will work. We all know programmers don’t use a new API unless they have to, or the new API offers insanely great performance over the old API. They like to stick with what they already have if at all possible and only use a new API when they really need to. Same for Suica. Automatic Suica transit gates will be upgraded so there is both the old Suica 1.0 ‘Suica Region API’ and the new Suica 2.0 ‘Region-Free API’. If a transit card user travels in the same Suica region, the exit gate uses the reliable local processing Suica 1.0 API it does now.

However if the transit card user travels from outside the exit station Suica region, the gate switches to Suica 2.0 API and sends it to the Suica 2.0 fare processing cloud. Simple. Locals enjoy the same Suica performance they’ve always had, people traveling from outside the local region might see a little bit slower performance at the exit gate. We find out how well Suica 2.0 works on May 27…hopefully it will be a happy marriage of local + central fare processing, the best of both. The important point is that all Transit IC card barriers will eventually go away. People can travel anywhere on the transit IC network not having to think about barrier nonsense, just like paper tickets. Sounds great but when does it happen?

The JR East QR Eki-Net Connection
I think Suica barriers will drop when QR Eki-Net service launches in the later half of FY 2024 (October 2024~March 2025). QR service starts in the very same Suica 2.0 Tohoku launch region, for all practical purposes QR will use the same Suica 2.0 fare validation system. And when does seamless cross region IC transit for Suica, TOICA, et al. happen? As soon as all the station gate wiring is done basically. JR East seems to prefer stationary cloud connected Suica 2.0 validators at unmanned stations. JR Central and JR West prefer the bus approach of having on board enter and exit validators for rural lines with unmanned stations. Either way is fine, just get it done already. Let the Transit IC barriers drop away into the past where they belong. Because with Suica 2.0 in place and barriers gone, the way is also cleared for fare capping, specialty ticketing and lots more.