MythBusters: plastic Suica isn’t safer than Mobile Suica

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A year ago on 2-23-06-24 0:37 to 13:00 JST, all of JR East online services went offline due to a mishap during server center related power supply construction. The most affected services were the most used: Mobile Suica and the online Eki-Net ticketing service, even station kiosks were not working for a few hours. While embarrassing and inconvenient, the damage was minimal due to the fact that the outage was an extension of a very long nightly maintenance and all services were offline when the mishap occurred. As there were no transactions taking place, all JR East had to do was refund Eki-Net ticket holders who couldn’t change their reservations.

A shorter, far more problematic and partial Mobile Suica outage happened 3 days later on 2023-06-27 from 16:24 to 18:00 JST. Apple Pay servers crashed from overload on Apple Pay ICOCA launch day taking down Suica, PASMO, WAON, nanaco, Hong Kong Octopus and other Apple device Wallet services worldwide. Despite media reports screaming ‘Mobile Suica is down again’ the system itself was running just fine for non-Apple devices. This one was not on JR East or the Mobile Suica system but JR East had to refund iOS Suica App iPhone users who could not use purchased Suica Green Car Tickets.

The thing is that outages happen to everybody, Apple, Google, credit card payment networks, QR code payment networks, etc. It’s just life in the cloud era. What most people don’t realize is that Mobile Suica is actually more robust than credit cards and QR payments because it doesn’t put everything on the cloud. The Mobile Suica architecture splits local stored fare and centralized recharge functions so the whole enchilada is more robust whenever the cloud service goes bust.

Mobile Suica myths
Media reports of system outages are often sensationalistic and misleading, claiming “Suica App Users Stranded at Ticket Gates“, and other nonsense. Suica App has nothing to do with using Suica at transit gates. Even so whenever something goes wrong online comments are full of ‘I’m going back to plastic Suica’ comments. Yahoo News Japan even ran a brain dead hack piece from GIZMODO entitled, “Be prepared: carry an unregistered plastic Suica in case of Mobile Suica problems,” recommending unregistered Suica because, ‘anybody can share it.’ Both writer and editors failed to notice that unregistered plastic Suica and PASMO cards are currently unavailable due to chip shortages.

Here’s the thing, plastic Suica isn’t ‘safer’ than Mobile Suica. It’s a myth:

• Myth: I can’t use Mobile Suica if the service is offline.
• Reality: Unlike credit card or code payment network outages, a Mobile Suica outage doesn’t affect card use at transit gates or stores. That’s always the beauty of local processed stored value cards, both physical (plastic) and ‘on the device’ digital (embedded secure element).

You can always use Mobile Suica for transit and payments just like plastic, a Mobile Suica outage doesn’t affect that. The only real impact is the mobile exclusive credit/debit card recharge function and this is no different than the nightly maintenance when Mobile Suica goes offline.Cash recharge is always available 24/7 at any convenience store, Seven Bank ATMs which are everywhere, and mobile friendly station recharge kiosks which are also everywhere these days.

The only real outage inconvenience was for people who wanted to buy Mobile Suica extras: Suica Green Car Tickets, Suica Day Passes, or those who might need to renew their Mobile Suica commuter pass.

Which brings us to the GIZMODO Japan hack piece that was full of outrageous misinformation that you find everywhere online: 1) Mobile Suica on smartphones devices stop working in an outage, 2) Carry a plastic unregistered Suica card to use during an outage. This is exactly the same stupid shit bloggers posted back when Apple Pay Suica launched in 2016: carry a plastic Suica in case your iPhone battery dies.

Even in the days before Power Reserve Express Mode iPhone, this was, and is, completely wrong ‘advice’ that will get you in trouble at the transit gate. Never forget the golden Suica rule: the same Suica card used to tap in must be used to tap out to complete the transit. If the Suica you started out with cannot be used at the exit gate, for whatever reason (lost card, dead device, etc.), the gate alarm will sound and you must pay full fare in cash.

I’m sure there will always be people who believe that plastic Suica is somehow ‘safer’, but the reality is that with JR East reducing station staff wherever they can, finding real people to deal with plastic card problems will be more of a hassle than it already is. In the future JR East will tell plastic card users to use online assistants at station kiosks. In the end it will be faster to do it all on mobile.