Big things sometimes come in small packages. JR East, JR Central, JR West issued a joint press statement on September 20 that starting in April 2021, Suica-Toica-ICOCA commuter pass regions will be enlarged into a continuous virtual commuter region for cross region commuting. This will cover regular rail lines and […]
Apple - iPhone - Mobile Payments - NFC - NFC tags - NFC-Felica - PASMO - Suica - Transit
Tokyo Cashless 2020: Dear JR East, we need a new Suica Charge App
1️⃣ >Dear JR East, we need a new Suica Charge App2️⃣ Consumption tax relief with the CASHLESS rebate program3️⃣ Are Apple Maps and Siri really Apple Pay level ready for the Tokyo Olympics?4️⃣ Blame the Japan Cashless Payments mess on VISA and EMVCo, not FeliCa Now that iOS 13 with supercharged […]
Apple - Apple Pay Suica - NFC - NFC-Felica - PASMO - Suica - Transit
JR West ICOCA Expands Coverage on JR Shikoku
If you are familiar with the Japan Transit IC card system that started with Suica and grew from there, you might know the other major cards like JR West ICOCA and JR Central Toica. What about the JR Shikoku card? There isn’t one. The problem dates back to the many […]
Apple - Apple Pay + Wallet - Apple Pay Suica - EMV - Mobile Payments - NFC-Felica - PASMO - QR Code Payments - Suica
Suica Tops Contactless Use in Tokyo Area
Another market survey, another few data points. MoneyZine writers Hideyuki Kato and Isamu Saito report some interesting results of 2 different cashless use surveys. As I reported a year ago, Apple Pay has brought a lot of changes to the Japanese payments market but it’s hard to make sense of […]
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 […]