Tsutsumu Ishikawa is probably Japan’s premier tech journalist who came up through the traditional print journalism of Nikkei, kind of like Walt Mossberg or Joanna Stern of WSJ. Ishikawa san was also the journalist who broke the Apple Pay coming to Japan story in the summer of 2016 in the Japanese press, which Bloomberg shamelessly reported in English without giving him credit.
Because of his deep connection to Apple Pay, it’s ironic that Ishikawa san is suddenly tweeting that he’s been bitten by the iPhone X NFC Suica Problem:
Japanese tech media did not take up the iPhone X NFC Suica problem in 2018. I don’t expect them to now. Even journalists who were aware of the problem in 2018 like Junya Suzuki, kind as he is, told me, “Let’s leave it up to social media channels.” Unfortunately, in this day and age the reality is that working tech journalists have to pick and choose stories that have legs and get clicks. Otherwise they can’t make a living.
Ishikawa san’s sudden iPhone X Suica problem is intriguing, and worrisome. Is it one of the original problem units manufactured before April 2018? I have no idea, but I have always suspected that all iPhone X units manufactured before the Revision B iPhone X April 2018 switchover will exhibit degraded NFC performance over time.
Other iPhone X users are reporting this too. Even iPhone X device owners who have not had NFC problems are suddenly discovering that their iPhone X NFC is going wonky. I hope this is not a new ugly chapter in the iPhone X NFC Suica problem saga:
Tsutsumu Ishikawa’s iPhone X NFC is going wonky 
Tanaka san’s iPhone X NFC is going wonky too…
I wonder if Ishikawa san and Tanaka san will read this blog and get a Rev. B iPhone X replacement? Probably not, but they should. So should everybody with a problem iPhone X device. I’ll update this post with any new information or developments.
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