What a Suica year. After all that pie in the sky 2024 Suica Renaissance marketing glitz, we should have known the ugly reality 2025 had in store for us when […]
Mobile Payments
Apple Pay drops the FeliCa requirement for Japanese issue payment cards
Spring is always the time for new product announcements in Japan which starts in March. Today, 2025-03-03 marks the day that Apple dropped the FeliCa requirement for payment cards resulting […]
Mobile Transit
Suica Renaissance: Beyond the Baloney
JR East has released a lot of different Suica roadmaps these past few years. First we got the 2018 Suica 2 in 1 roadmap for MaaS integration of regional transit […]
Mobile Payments - Mobile Transit
Suica 2.0 Platform Closeup: Mobile Suica 2.0
March is always the month for new train schedules and services and 2024 is no different. JR East will be adding a significant Suica service expansion to 21 stations in […]
Mobile Payments
Thoughts on Suica 2.0
The Suica 2.0 launch in the Tohoku region on May 27, 2023 was not simply a launch. It marked the transition to a whole new business model for JR East. […]
Apple
The Apple Pay monopoly debate part 2: the gatekeeper difference
I’ve always said people should pay attention to the Japan mobile payments market because there is a lot to learn from the successes and failures of the world’s first large […]