Apple Pay Japan / Cool Japan / iOS / iPhone

Suica Apple Pay and Green Car Seats

Joel Breckinridge Bassett

Green Seat and Suica Apple Pay

green seat suica
The green red LED indicates a vacant Green Car seat all ready for your Suica touch,

One of the cool Suica Apple Pay features shown in the Apple Pay Japan marketing blitz is Green Car “touch and sit” seating. In the JR East ad Ryuhei Matsuda holds his Suica Apple Pay iPhone 7 up to the Suica touch area of the Green Car and boom, he appears all done.

It looks like magic but the actual purchase takes place in the Suica app, which is slightly less cool: input your embark and debark station points, hit the Apple Pay purchase button and you are good to go. The purchase is good for all day between your purchased station points. Get on a regular train, find an empty Green Car seat red LED spot and touch your iPhone 7/Apple Watch Series 2 device just like Ryuhei Matsuda.

suica app green seat.png
The actual Green Car Suica purchase is little more involved than the ad and takes place in Suica app. Why is an unoccupied seat red and an occupied seat green? Only JR East knows.

All things considered, it’s still cool. Now if I only had a generous travel expense account, I would be all set for JR East train travel bliss.