Suica 2.0 related comments and discussions are starting to appear on online forums but there are many mistaken assumptions. The assumption is any transit card system using ‘online’ processing simply […]
Mobile Payments
Reality Checking the Western Myth of Japanese Cash Addiction
Myths die hard, especially Western Japanese myths. Mostly because somebody doesn’t want them to. They are the proverbial rice bowl of hack foreign journalists who can’t be bothered doing research, […]
Mobile Payments - Mobile Transit
Suica 2.0 Platform Closeup: Mobile Suica 2.0
March is always the month for new train schedules and services and 2024 is no different. JR East will be adding a significant Suica service expansion to 21 stations in […]
Japanese Typography
Raising the dead: Morisawa breathes life into the Sha-Ken font library
In January 2021, Morisawa and Sha-Ken announced they would ‘co-develop’ the Sha-Ken font library for OpenType (English press release here), due for release in 2024 in celebration of the Japanese […]
Mobile Payments
NTT Docomo • JR East launch dPOINT Mobile SUICA recharge for dBARAI (Updated for Apple Pay)
JR East and Docomo announced a new version of dBARAI app today one that hooks into Mobile Suica on Android to recharge with dPOINT or dBARAI account balance. Support on […]
Mobile Transit
2024: the year when Shinkansen eTickets go mainstream
Kenzy’s YouTube digests are wonderful little insights on mobile ticketing and transit trends from a real world transit user perspective. His latest makes a good case that 2024 is the […]