The first year after leaving a steady income job for freelance or part-time work is always a challenge because you have to pay local taxes and national health insurance for […]
Mobile Transit
JR Group online ticketing destination: collaboration, not integration
The recent JR Group announcement (JR East, JR Central, JR West, JR Kyushu) that their separate online ticket reservation systems (Eki-Net, EX, e5984, JR KYUSHU Train Reservation) would finally start […]
Mobile Transit
The Different expansion strategies of Suica and ICOCA
Sometimes there are advantages in being late to market. JR East Suica and JR West ICOCA are following different regional service expansion strategies with JR West leveraging their late arrival […]
Mobile Payments
Kyodo ‘exclusive’ report claims some old FeliCa chips are vulnerable
The Kyodo News agency published a report on August 28 claiming that some types of FeliCa chips shipped before 2017 are vulnerable and may be tampered with for certain operations. […]
Help Desk
Maintenance Notice
Many things changed during COVID: the Japan scene, the transit scene, the payments scene. Reader interest in what I was writing about pretty much evaporated in 2023, never to return. […]