Now that the 1st wave of Suica 2 in 1 card launches is complete, it’s a good time to review the ‘State of Suica’. And it’s always interesting to examine the cultural differences too, when it comes to labeling trends as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Westerners for example invariably say, what’s […]
SmartEX - EXPRESS - Suica - Transit
My JR-EAST mess
My JR-EAST, like a lot of JR East software services, is a nice idea, poorly implemented. It’s an attempt to unify scattered account login IDs for various JR East web services that evolved independently but need to work together as one in the mobile app era: Mobile Suica, JRE POINT, […]
Apple Pay + Wallet - Apple Pay PASMO - Apple Pay Suica - CASHLESS - EMV - FeliCa - Mobile Payments - QR Code Payments - Suica
Japan mobile payment survey results
I gave the Twitter survey function a workout and asked 2 questions: Which Japanese mobile payment do you use most? Which Japanese reward points do you use most? The results are not surprising but come with many caveats: the survey sampling was puny, in English and pretty much limited to […]
NFC-Felica - QR Code Payments - Suica - Transit
Eki-Net getting reboot with multilingual support
Well, finally. JR East Eki-Net is getting the makeover I complained about when Shinkansen eTicket service and the mobile app launched just a year ago. On June 27 Eki-Net gets a badly needed re-boot with multi-lingual support, JRE POINT support, more Shinkansen eTicket discounts, inbound discount ticket support, a new […]
Apple - FeliCa - NFC - NFC-Felica - Suica - Transit
The Suica 2 in 1 Region Affiliate Transit Card
The Suica 2 in 1 Region Affiliate transit card ‘totra’ launches today, the first card based on the September 2018 joint JR East/Sony Imaging Products & Solutions/JR East Mechatronics announcement. The joint roles are defined as: (1) JR East for promotion, coordinating and supporting the implementation process with local transit […]