iPhone 8+iOS 11+Apple Pay Japan=NFC Nirvana 

It seems fitting that Japan could be the first country to achieve NFC nirvana: any smartphone or credit card from anywhere ‘just works’ for contactless payment. This is what the Japanese government is hoping to achieve in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

This ‘everything just works’ goal is exactly what Apple is achieving now with Apple Pay Japan, global NFC in every iPhone 8, iPhone X, Apple Watch Series 3 and iOS 11 Apple Pay improvements.

NFC Pay, EMV, FeliCa and all that
T-Cubic’s hastily pulled Apple Pay J/Speedy and Mastercard Contactless card announcement yesterday was a coming attraction preview for iPhone 8 and new Apple Pay cards that use NFC Pay. JCB J/Speedy cards and QUICPay network work with EMV (NFC A-B) and FeliCa (NFC-F). Mastercard Contactless and Visa Contactless are just EMV. And you thought Japan was only FeliCa.

An important clue was the July 4 Apple Pay addition of au Wallet. Look at the Apple Pay au Wallet payment method tweeted below: EMV contactless (NFC Pay). EMV does not use FeliCa (NFC-F), it uses NFC A-B. What is going on?

iPhone Region setting and NFC flavor
In iOS 10 the iPhone region setting determined what NFC flavor Apple Pay used. Cards loaded in USA region were all set to NFC A-B. Cards loaded in Japan region were set to NFC-F.  According to KDDI au Wallet works both in Japan and abroad. But to use it abroad with iOS 10 you had to remove it from Apple Pay and add it back in with a different iPhone region setting to force set NFC A-B.

iOS 11 improves Apple Pay by using smart on the fly NFC A-B-F switching. This is why Apple can put the NFC Pay (EMV) logo alongside QUICPay (FeliCa/EMV), iD (FeliCa) and Suica (FeliCa). Based on yesterday’s leak, the QUICPay backend works with EMV (NFC A-B) and FeliCa (NFC-F) but iOS 11 is a requirement to do so.

In classic Apple form the important thing is it all works because Apple has pulled the  disparate hardware and software pieces together into a seamless unified whole. iPhone 8 (NFC A-B-F) + iOS 11 (smart NFC switching) + Apple Pay = NFC Nirvana

Apple even moved that pesky MIC Felica certification mark from the iPhone case to the screen so iPhone 8 inbound users can add and use Suica without breaking Japanese law.

Summary
After T-Cubic’s sneak peek and the addition of NFC Pay to Apple Pay Japan, it’s clear more cards are coming to Apple Pay with iPhone 8: J/Speedy, Mastercard Contactless and likely Visa Contactless as well. Apple Pay Japan is quickly becoming the NFC payment system that does it all.

Japan could also become the first county to accept all major global NFC and contactless payment systems. One hopes other nations will return the favor for Japanese visiting abroad with iPhone and Apple Pay.