Using Suica with iPhone 8 and Apple Watch Series 3

Inbound Suica officially starts September 22 with the release of iPhone 8 and Apple Watch Series 3. Anybody visiting Japan with these devices can add and use Suica. To mark the official rollout of Apple’s global FeliCa support, here is a basic guide.

Plastic or virtual Suica?
The choice of plastic or virtual Suica depends on what device you have: with iPhone 8 you can add a plastic Suica card to Apple Pay. It is the easiest and recommend way. With Apple Watch Series 3 you have to add a virtual Suica with the Suica App; a little more work.

iPhone 8
1) Buy Suica at any Tokyo area JR station as shown in the JR East video above (the one minute mark). Set your iPhone region setting to Japan. The iPhone Language setting does not need to be changed. Region can be restored after successfully adding Suica.

2) Add Suica following the instructions on Apple’s Set up a Suica card in Apple Pay: Transfer a Suica card to Apple Pay on your iPhone.

3) Use Suica as explained on Apple’s Using Suica page. Not that you really need an explanation.

4) Recharge Suica: In Wallet, tap the Suica card. tap , tap Add Money, then choose the amount, and tap “Add”. Select the card you want to pay from and place your finger on Touch ID to complete the transaction. Any Apple Pay loaded credit card is good for recharging Suica. Go here for details about Suica recharging and Apple Pay credit cards.

Suica Express Transit mode is automatically turned on when you first add a Suica card to Apple Pay. With Express Transit you do not use Touch ID:

Simply hold the top of your iPhone 8 or the display of your Apple Watch Series 3 within a few centimeters of the contactless reader until you see Done and a checkmark on the display. You don’t need to wake or unlock your device or open an app to make the purchase.

Suica Express Transit is convenient and secure. Suica is a pre-paid card, it only holds the amount of money that you add to it with Apple Pay, or with cash.

Suica and network access
Network access is necessary when adding Suica to Apple Pay, recharging Suica with Apple Pay or using the Suica App. Suica does not require network access for transit and store purchases. Suica also works in Airplane mode to preserve battery life while traveling.

Suica Support
JR East has a very nice Apple Pay Suica Japanese support site. English support is here.
Apple Pay Suica is compatible with all the major transit IC systems covering rail and bus nationwide.

Note: if you are migrating Suica from iPhone 7 or Apple Watch Series 2 you must delete Suica from the old device first before setting it up on a new device.

Apple Watch Series 3
If you are using Apple Watch with iPhone 8 all you need to do is add Suica to iPhone explained above, then transfer it to Apple Watch.

If you are using an older iPhone with Apple Watch Suica setup is complicated by Suica App, it’s only in Japanese and only available in the Japan App Store and USA App Store.

Basically you create a virtual Suica with Suica App on iPhone then transfer it to Apple Watch.

Preflight check list

An iPhone 6 or above running the latest iOS version paired with Apple Watch Series 3 also running the latest WatchOS
Download and install the JR East Suica app
A credit card already loaded into your iPhone Apple Pay Wallet. The card can be any Apple Pay compatible card issued from your home country

Requirements when adding Suica

Network access when adding Suica to Apple Pay
Mobile data app use turned on for Suica, Wallet and Watch apps
Passcode set for both iPhone and Apple Watch
Apple Watch wrist detection turned on
Region setting for both devices is set to Japan. The Language setting can be any language you prefer. Region can be restored after successfully adding Suica
Launch the Suica app. Note that Suica app will only launch with a successfully paired Apple Watch Series 3

Adding a virtual Suica
Now comes the tricky part if you cannot read Japanese. Follow the screenshots and captions to create a new Suica card, add an initial balance, then load it to Apple Pay Wallet.

fullsizeoutput_64af — Touch the “Add Suica”button at the bottom right of the screen highlighted in red.

fullsizeoutput_64b1 — In the next screen select the top “Suica Unregistered” option highlighted in red. This is the simplest option to create a virtual Suica.

fullsizeoutput_64b2 — Ignore the notices and touch the “Next” button in the upper right as highlighted in red.

fullsizeoutput_64b3 — Touch “Agreet” in red for terms and conditions.

Step 5: Tap “Add Amount” in red.

Step 6: Choose an initial amount to add to Suica

Step 7: Tap Apple Pay to add an initial balance to Suica

Step 8: Tap “Next” in red to add this Suica card to Apple Pay Wallet.

fullsizeoutput_64b7 — Last but not least you have to comply with the JR East Terms and Conditions by touching the “Agree” button in red.

fullsizeoutput_64bd — if all is successful Wallet will notify you that Suica has been added to you Apple Pay Wallet.

If all went well you should now have a Suica card in your iPhone Wallet app setup for Express Transit. The last step is transferring the Suica card from iPhone to Apple Watch. Read the “Move your Suica from your iPhone to your Apple Watch” section of the Set up a Suica card in Apple Pay support page for details.

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