September 1, 2024 marks the return of Suica and PASMO plastic cards to local station kiosks after sales were suspended in August 2023 due to IC chip shortages. While not the first chip shortage induced Suica sales suspension, it was the longest. For the record, Japanese users didn’t care about the sales suspension in contrast to overblown media hand wringing. The Tokyo area Suica / PASMO transit use rate has been above 93% for years now. Everyone using transit already has a Suica or PASMO card.
And despite the sales suspension for unregistered and registered cards, commuter Suica and other card types (Child Suica, Disability Suica, replacement of lost registered cards, etc.) remained available at local stations. All major smartphones sold in Japan support Mobile Suica so the plastic Suica card shortage was not an inconvenience.
And yet gaijins living in Japan endlessly discussed the Suica sales suspension on social media, making all kinds of ridiculous statements without, you know, direct evidence. The same kind of people who believe Wikipedia content is trustworthy because it has web linked “sources”.
Why all the fuss? Some of it is question fatigue: westerners visiting Japan endlessly repeating the same ‘where can I get Suica card’ questions on social media instead of doing a 1 minute Google search that would answer their questions. Research that visitors from neighboring Asian countries regularly do and go on their way.
There’s also the mobile aspect. Mobile Suica has been around almost as long as plastic Suica, the longest running, most comprehensive digital transit card in the world. Yet, global NFC remains notably absent on non-JP Android devices removing the Mobile Suica option for visitors with those devices.
Adding Suica to iPhone is so easy that when a thoughtful person posts a simple question on Reddit like, “Why would anyone with a iPhone get a physical card…any benefit of having a physical card?” Instead of constructive discussion they get rants from Mobile Suica iPhone loathing Reddit brained self promoting ‘experts’:
- Endless questions about people becoming unable to recharge Mobile Suica with a credit card, a problem that never exists with physical cards. <First of all it’s disingenuous to ignore the downsides of cash only plastic Suica recharge that has to be done at specific places versus the great convenience of Mobile Suica that can be recharged with a credit card anywhere, anytime, i.e. recharge on the go but also instant balance and card status feedback, and much more. When a foreign credit card stops working, (looking at you Wise and Revolut the two biggest troublemakers out there) it’s not a magic problem or the fault of Apple Pay, JR East, etc., and it’s not tons of people just because of a few posts on Reddit or X. If the card issuer blocks a Mobile Suica transaction for some fraud suspected reason talk with your card issuer like any other declined purchase. And the Reddit brained ones don’t mention Mobile Suica can be recharged with cash too at any convenience store or mobile friendly station recharge kiosk.>
- Mobile Suica cannot be used for child cards, not everyone has a smartphone (kids, elderly people, etc.). <True but why bring this to a discussion of adult personal transit card use where everybody has a smartphone?>
- Can’t get the balance refunded to a foreign bank account if you accidentally load too much onto Mobile Suica. <typical Reddit BS, refunds are overblown, just buy stuff and run the balance down to zero, easy to do. The only reason for a refund is getting the ¥500 plastic card deposit back but the refund processing fee costs you ¥220, and don’t forget that Mobile Suica doesn’t have card deposit fees>
- Phones can die, or fall and break, then you’re stuck without your IC card during transit <Plastic cards have different downsides, they are way easier to loose than smartphones and you can’t tell how much balance is left until the gate flashes red and closes from insufficient fare.. It’s always a balance of convenience and (extremely low) risk. Modern devices have power reserve express mode cards that get battery drained smartphones out the transit gate and thanks to Apple Pay multi-device provisioning it’s easy to migrate a Suica or PASMO to another iPhone or Apple Watch>
- Residents outside of the JR East region might want to use their own local card that gets them points or discounts on their local train system <true but slippery as it only applies to longer term residents, not short term visitors.. Mobile Suica and Mobile ICOCA earn far better reward points with credit card recharge that can be turned around and used for free recharges>
- 90% of the ticket machines around Japan are the slot kind that only accept plastic cards, not mobile devices <more BS and not an issue for mobile recharge at the nearest convenience store ATM and checkout register.>
- Can’t use Suica-linked mobile eTickets for transferring from the Tohoku to Tokaido shinkansen. <wrong again, you can…just don’t use the paper ticket only direct Tohoku Shinkansen to Tokaido Shinkansen transfer gates. EX eTicket to Eki-Net eTicket transfers are done by exiting the JR East Shinkansen gate area to the regular line transfer area, walking over to the other JR Central Shinkansen line transfer gate (or vice versa) and enter as explained in this video>
And so on. It’s tedious and infuriating when smart people who should know better, post stupid immature stuff. Long story short, be wary when reading Japan related questions and comments on any westerner gaijin centric social media platform, especially Reddit (and Japan Travel Tips subreddit). ‘Answers’ are wrong, out of date or disinformation snark from Reddit brained trolls who dump on people using iPhone and Mobile Suica. Go figure.
In the end it comes down to what helps the end user. It’s great that plastic Suica is back. It will always be the low tech option anybody can use, the plastic replacement of paper tickets issued from a kiosk with cash. It needs to be there but the incentives for going mobile will only continue to grow. It’s the future. Now that boring old plastic Suica is back maybe we’ll get some social media peace and quiet.
I doubt it.
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