JR East announced a special plastic Suica card for inbound tourists called “Welcome Suica” that will be available from September 1, 2019 at major Tokyo area stations and JR East Travel Service Centers. The main attraction according to the press release is that the Welcome Suica card does away with […]
NFC-Felica - Transit
Hankyu Goes ICOCA
Hankyu Corporation announced in January they would sell ICOCA cards for commuter pass use starting March 1. The switchover is interesting on many levels. ICOCA is the JR West transit IC card and PiTaPa is the transit IC card for Kansai area private lines (Hankyu, Keihan, Hanshin, Kintetsu, etc.). They […]
Apple - Apple Pay Suica - EMV - Mobile Payments - NFC-Felica - QR Code Payments
Yes, QR Codes Suck for Transit
Here are QR Codes in action at subway transit gates in Beijing. And here is Suica in action. Working Backwards from the User The Suica development starting point was a user problem with magnetic card commuter passes. Old style paper passes were visually inspected at gates and could stay ‘in-wallet’ […]
Apple - Apple Pay Suica - NFC-Felica - Suica - Transit
Free Mobile Suica for Everybody in 2020
JR East announced the end of the Mobile Suica ¥1030 annual membership fee for all Android devices on February 26 2020. Mobile Suica is free for Apple Pay users. JR East also announced the end of Symbian OS feature phone support with most devices being cut off from Mobile Suica […]
Apple - Apple Pay Suica - NFC-Felica - Suica
Huawei hopes to steal Japanese iPhone Market Share with Global FeliCa
Huawei released the Mate 20 Pro in Japan November 30 with a clear goal of offering a lower priced smartphone in the Japanese market where carrier subsidies are going away and iPhone XR sales rumored to be so-so. IT Media Mobile reports that Huawei’s Jeff Wang, regional president for Japan and Korea said […]