This is an interesting development, Bank of the Ryukyus announced support for Taiwan EasyCard (aka Taiwan’s Suica). The press release is a little vague but says this is a co-venture for Bank of the Ryukyus to build….wait for it…another contactless payment platform for Japan. A separate Nikkei article (Japanese) quotes Bank of Ryukyus as having 7000 stores in Okinawa lined up and ready to go by March with a service launch planned in July. The long term plan is extending EasyCard payments beyond Okinawa to other areas in Japan. There is no mention of transit support.
This will be a boon for inbound visitors from Taiwan, especially Samsung Pay users because it will support EasyCard. Apple Pay and Google Pay support of EasyCard is rumored to be coming…”later” which can mean anything, but all 3 digital wallet platforms support the EasyCard MIFARE format. Now that EasyCard is coming to Japan, I wonder if Suica can go to Taiwan, or how about Octopus support in Japan. This kind of mix and match business opportunity is what global NFC smartphones are all about.
And in other Okinawa related good news: inbound Apple Pay Suica users, and other major transit IC cards are finally accepted on the Okinawa Monorail starting March 10.
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