Suica 2.0 related comments and discussions are starting to appear on online forums but there are many mistaken assumptions. The assumption is any transit card system using ‘online’ processing simply does exactly what EMV does: everything from key verification to payment processing happens on a central server. Let’s take a […]
Help Desk
Apple Pay Suica 101: In Progress transit and gate alerts
In the Tokyo region where Suica usage rates are well over 90% with Mobile Suica capable smartphones everywhere, generations of kids have grown up with it and are well versed using mobile payments of all kinds for all things. It seems that way for inbound visitors from Asia but that […]
Help Desk
Apple Pay Suica Wallet app recharge working for foreign VISA cards after iOS 17.2 update
The very long non-JP VISA credit card block by the VISA payment network for adding money to Suica in Wallet app via In-App Apple Pay is finally lifting with the iOS 17.2 update. The block started back in August 2022 and quickly extended to PASMO and ICOCA cards, a very […]
Mobile Payments
A warning sign for Japanese open loop transit operators: when the EMV payment network goes down, FeliCa networks keep working
Mobile Suica has had a rough 2 weeks. On June 24 a construction error during server center power supply expansion work left JR East Mobile Suica and Eki-Net online reservation services offline for 12 hours (0:00~12:00). It was an embarrassing mishap but the actual damage was small, limited to refunding […]
Apple Pay + Wallet
JR West announces Apple Pay ICOCA
Update: Apple Pay ICOCA launched 2023-06-27 7:00 am JST. With the successful launch of Mobile ICOCA (2023-03-22) on Osaifu Keitai Android, it’s time to think about Apple Pay ICOCA that was formally announced today (2023-04-17) as coming ‘this year’. The timing depends on how quickly Apple tests and qualifies ICOCA […]