With the proliferation of wearables JR East has been busy adding new devices to Mobile Suica. A timeline: The first hardware standard for Mobile Suica was Osaifu Keitai first on Symbian feature phones in 2006 followed by Android in 2013. This is the basic FeliCa chip in phone approach. Apple […]
Apple - Apple Pay Suica - FeliCa - NFC-Felica - Suica - Transit
Cloud Suica and Suica region extensions announced for early 2023
JR East announced cloud based Suica and extended coverage for the Tohoku region, going online with 44 stations in early 2023 and closing some major service gaps around the same time that Mobile ICOCA is due to launch. This same cloud system is expected to drive JR East QR closed […]
Apple Pay Suica - Apple Pay Transit - CASHLESS - EMV - FeliCa - Mobile Payments - NFC - NFC-Felica - QR Code Payments - Suica - Touchless - Transit
The truth is in the tap
The Nankai Visa Touch test launch launched endless Twitter discussions about slow EMV contactless tap speeds and performance issues compared with Suica and other Transit IC cards. EMV contactless transit in Japan is novel so this is expected. But suddenly people are also referencing Junya Suzuki’s 2016 pre-Apple Pay Suica […]
Apple Pay + Wallet - Apple Pay PASMO - Apple Pay Suica - Apple Pay Transit - FeliCa - Mobile Payments - NFC - NFC-Felica - PASMO - Suica - Transit
Is Suica ‘all-in-one’ possible?
Now that Suica 2 in 1 Region Affiliate transit cards are out, it’s time to examine the question that Yanik Magnan posed in his limitless possibility podcast: is Suica all-in-one possible? He defines it as follows: “All-in-one in my case would mean all Transit IC and local area transit members […]
NFC-Felica - QR Code Payments - Transit
What’s next for PiTaPa?
Now that Nankai Railway Visa Touch and QR Code transit tests have started (April 2), it’s helpful to take a look at Surutto Kansai, the association of Kansai area non-JR transit companies that issue and operate PiTaPa. I covered PiTaPa problems previously but in addition to the Nakai Visa Touch […]