JR East has released a lot of different Suica roadmaps these past few years. First we got the 2018 Suica 2 in 1 roadmap for MaaS integration of regional transit affiliates into the Suica system with regional exclusives. 2023 saw the central server fare processing Suica 2.0 roadmap and Tohoku region Suica 2.0 rollout. In 2024 we got 3: Welcome Suica Mobile in May, Next Generation Suica App with a new single sign-in, now called JRE-ID, for all JR East services ‘Beyond the Boarder‘ roadmap in June. And now we have yet another new roadmap released December 10 that recycles previous roadmaps with new details, new graphics and new marketing label: Suica Renaissance.
Taken all together it’s a tangled yarn ball of new service initiatives and marketing spin. Japanese media and English language media regurgitated the Suica Renaissance press release hyping juicy bits like Suica QR payments and walk through transit gates, calling it a ‘complete overhaul’ without analysis or real world use context. Which is a shame because believe me, the eventual user reality is going to be very different from the cute graphics in the press release PDF. At best Suica 2.0 is evolutionary not revolutionary. What follows is a repeat from previous posts with a look at feature updates and details.
The Suica 2.0 System + ID-PORT Software Infrastructure
Okay then, so what’s really new? It all comes down to the Suica 2.0 system, FeliCa + QR hardware infrastructure that migrates fare processing from local station gates to a central server, and the new services, ticketing, discounts and other goodies that JR East can accomplish by processing Suica services on a robust backend instead of the extremely limited and expensive processing capacity on transit gates. This is achieved by ID-PORT, a software middleware layer that links in-house and 3rd party services to a Suica account with My Number ID playing a big role for MaaS related region specific services. Think of it as doing open loop-like services on a closed loop system.
However, it’s important to remember this key point: the basic Suica foundation of a plastic or digital Suica card with a Stored Fare balance for paying transit fare and store purchases isn’t going anywhere. Core Suica will work as it has always worked at gates and store checkout. All of the new services, the ID-PORT attached stuff on the backend, is added and managed by the user with new updated Suica apps. This is where things get messy.
Short-term Goals
JR East marketing is playing loose with apps that are vaguely defined and don’t have names yet. The Suica Renaissance press release outlines 4 different Suica centric apps over a 4 year timeline.
February 2025: JRE ID rollout, the new comprehensive single sign-in for all JR East services will debut in Mobile Suica and gradually expand to Eki-Net, JRE POINT, etc.
March 2025: Welcome Suica Mobile English language app (iOS only) for inbound visitors to add and recharge a Welcome Suica card in Apple Wallet with JR East Shinkansen Touch and Go service (non-reserve seats only) turned on and ready to go.
Fall 2026: Suica QR Code Payment function, a major update for Mobile Suica (Android) / Suica (iOS) app that support store purchases beyond the current 20,000 JPY stored fare limit, limited to participating stores in the greater Tokyo region. Welcome Suica Mobile app also gets an update that supports JR East Shinkansen and Limited Express reserve seat ticket purchases and Suica Green Car Ticket purchases.
Spring 2027: Another major Mobile Suica (Android) / Suica (iOS) app that supports a new Suica Smartphone Commuter Pass function that works in JR East stations currently without Suica gates or validators.
2028: A new Regional Suica app (Android/iOS) that links with My Number card for tailored regional MaaS services and discounts, and a new Mobile Suica (Android) / Suica (iOS) app upgrade that supports new kinds of subscription transit services and tailored transit discounts.
Lots of new services for sure but the downside is that it’s too easy to end up with a confusing collection of service items like JR East’s online ticketing Eki-Net site. Eki-Net is the poster child for the ‘throw everything on a web-site and let users figure it out’ approach.
Good services filtered through a lousy user interface end up diminishing those very services. Most of the time people don’t know what services are buried in the UI, or how to use them. Savvy UI app design can help users understand and get the most of online services. JR East really needs to work a lot harder on keeping things Suica simple, because simplicity has always been one of the best things about using Mobile Suica.
Long-term Reality Check
JR East is also promising 3 new Suica features ‘within 10 years’: walk-through transit gates, GPS virtual gates for JR East lines and stations without hardware Suica gates and pay-later Suica (monthly deduction from a bank account). Walk-through gates are getting the most attention but there is no mention of the technology behind them.
If you look carefully at Suica 2.0 IC + QR transit gate installations, JR East is replacing all gates with new models, both IC only green gates and black IC + QR / paper ticket combo gates. As of December 2024, new gate installation in Tokyo are far from finished but proceeding at an accelerating pace.
In my own neighborhood, Koenji was upgraded recently with Asagaya coming soon. In medium sized stations like Koenji, a standard 7 lane gate layout has a mix of IC + QR and/or paper in the middle and IC only gates on either side. Most people won’t notice any difference except for the covered up QR readers, but it’s all ready for Suica 2.0 centralized fare processing.
Ultra-WideBand Walk-through Gates
Given that JR East is upgrading all Suica gate hardware leading up to the March 2027 Suica 2.0 switchover, it has to stay in place for a few years, usually 5~7 years. Hence a 10 year timeline for walk-through gates. Right now there are only 2 technologies for walk-through gates: facial recognition which has seen some limited testing on Osaka Metro and ultra-wideband (UWB). The JR East press release provides a clue which technology they will use. Look carefully in the Welcome Suica Mobile section:
It clearly indicates that iOS Welcome Suica Mobile users can use walk-through gates and GPS virtual gates too. Suica walk-through gates will almost certainly use the same Mobile FeliCa ‘Touchless’ UWB technology shown in 2019. It’s an extension of the current secure element technology that drives Mobile Suica Express Transit on all mobile devices. The challenging part of development will be UWB gate side development but it’s similar to what Apple and BMW are already doing with UWB based digital car keys. UWB walk-through is passive vs. the active NFC ‘touch to the reader’ gesture, as such it will only live on smartphones, not on plastic cards, i.e. devices with a battery.
But this is a dilemma for station gate layout design. NFC, QR and paper are active as the user has to tap, walk-though is passive as the user just walks through but I don’t see how JR East can simply have a ‘passive’ walk-through only lane that doesn’t also support regular ‘active’ Suica tap too. That has to be there.
Will mixing active and passive in a single gate lane slow down walk-through flow? It will be interesting to see what gate design and lane layout JR East and JREM engineers come up with.
GPS Virtual Gates
It wasn’t that long ago when JR East promised that all JR East lines and stations would be wired with a low cost ‘Cloud Suica’. Some of that promise has been delivered in the Suica Tohoku 2023 extension, the Akita 2024 extension and the 2025 Nagano extension.
There are sure to be more smaller scale Suica extensions but with the GPS Virtual Gate strategy announcement, JR East has clearly backed away from hard wiring all (low traffic, middle of nowhere, unattended) stations. Better to go all in with Mobile Suica on smartphones with built-in cellular and GPS. All JR East has to do is make sure those stations have decent cellular reception and do everything else in the cloud. In a way, it’s Cloud Suica after all but it’s a Mobile Suica exclusive…what do plastic Suica card users do?
Suica QR Codes
Let’s be real, the infatuation with QR Code payment apps like PayPay is over, it’s over because the point reward boom is over. Better point rewards was the only reason to use them and users are pretty much locked into their chosen point ecosystem (docomo, SoftBank, Rakuten, etc.)
JR East already has a healthy reward point ecosystem in place with JRE POINT but they need a full fledged payment service to go with it. The Suica stored fare (SF) ¥20,000 limit is baked into the NFC Suica card architecture and the Transit IC standard. Changing the Suica SF limit means breaking transit fare interoperability.
To work around this limit JR East is using QR. Details are practically zero but it’s safe to assume that when the new Suica App launches in late 2026, Mobile Suica users will have a new online ‘Suica Balance’ they add money to from registered credit cards or bank accounts that can be used for QR payments at stores that accept Suica QR and make person to person payments like dBarai, PayPay, Rakuten Pay and so on. It’s not clear if the Suica SF will be incorporated into the new online Suica Balance at service launch or not. What is clear is that Suica NFC tap payments will have the same limits they do now for compatibility.
We’ll have to see what JR East comes up with but color me skeptical. One of the big drawbacks of QR payment apps is security logins and the eternal bane of all code payment apps: poor network store environments. How many times have you been held up at the checkout line when somebody in front can’t open their code payment app, or have to do a security login to use it? Too many. Tap to pay will always beat out network dependent code apps for speed and convenience.
There’s a lot of Suica Renaissance roadmap topics that I haven’t covered as features like Regional MaaS services are too vague to comment. We’ll have to wait for details and see how they integrate with My Number Digital ID which is coming to Apple Wallet in the spring of 2025. As said earlier, Suica Renaissance is at best, a gradual evolution.
This wraps up my blog posts for 2024. May 2025 be a good year for everybody. Happy transit where ever your final destination takes you.
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