Tag: Mobile PASMO

Move Suica and other transit or e-Money cards to new iPhone (updated for iOS 17)

Apple Pay transit cards (Suica, PASMO, and ICOCA) and e-Money cards (WAON and nanaco) are different from Apple Pay payment cards in that a transit or e-Money card prepaid stored value, the card balance, is stored locally on the card itself and can only exist on a single device. Apple Pay credit/debit cards coexist simultaneously on multiple devices, not Suica, PASMO, ICOCA and other transit cards like Octopus, Clipper, SmarTrip, TAP, or e-Money cards like nanaco and WAON.

These stored value cards have to be removed from the old iPhone first, then transferred to the new iPhone. There are 2 ways to transfer cards: automatic transfer with iOS 17 Setup Assistant and manual transfer with Wallet app.

Automatic card transfer with iOS 17 Quick Start Setup Assistant
Quick Start device to device data transfer is the best way to setup a new iPhone, and iOS 17 Set Assistant now automatically transfers all payment, transit and e-Money cards from the old iPhone to the new iPhone. It is very easy to do and highly recommended.

The Apple support page Add a Suica, PASMO, or ICOCA card to Apple Wallet is updated for iOS 17 and covers moving cards in the Transfer your transit Suica, PASMO, or ICOCA card between devices section.

Place the previous iPhone near the new iPhone. iOS 17 Setup Assistant has a new Wallet section that lets you select Wallet cards to transfer in the ‘Make This Your New iPhone’ splash screen. Either select the Wallet items you want to transfer or just leave it all up to Set Assistant. Setup Assistant automatically transfers Wallet items to the new iPhone. As always, make sure all devices have a good internet connection.

The Suica 2 step: manual card transfer in Wallet app
Users can do the traditional Suica 2 step of manually removing cards from the previous iPhone Wallet app before adding them in the new iPhone Wallet app.

Step 1: Remove Suica from Wallet on the previous iPhone
On the old iPhone go to Wallet > tap Suica or other transit card > tap ‘More’ ˚˚˚ in the upper right corner > scroll to the bottom > tap Remove This Card. Don’t worry, this does not delete the card. Apple Pay automatically migrates and safely stores the card on Apple Pay iCloud for you.

  • Step 2: Add card in Wallet on the new iPhone
    On the new iPhone make sure you are signed in with the same Apple ID, open Wallet and tap Add Card “+”
    Tap Previous Cards > confirm the Suica or transit card you want to add is selected > tap Continue
    The registered card name and balance will be showing in the Add Card screen
    Tap Next to add the card to Wallet or tap Add This Card to Wallet Later to cancel
Tap Previous Cards
Confirm and tap Continue
Tap Next to re-add card to Wallet
  • Transfer Suica from previous Apple Watch to new Apple Watch
    Apple Watch Suica users upgrading to a new Apple Watch is easy with watchOS 10. From the Set up your Apple Watch • Set up as new or restore from a backup section: If you’ve set up another Apple Watch with your current iPhone, a screen appears that says Make This Your New Apple Watch. Tap Apps & Data and Settings to see how Express Setup will configure your new watch. Then tap Continue. If you want to choose how your new watch is set up, tap Customize Settings. Then choose a backup from another previous Apple Watch to restore.
  • You can also add cards manually in Wallet as outlined in the previous iPhone section.

What about Suica App and other card apps?

If your Suica, PASMO, ICOCA or e-Money card is registered in the coressponding app, your account and password information will migrate to the new device like any regular iOS app when using device to device data transfer. The apps will automatically pick up the card information from Wallet but you will need to login to access the card app account. If you deleted the app before device to device data transfer, you will need to manually enter account and password information to login when re-adding the app. See the Suica App and PASMO App guide for account setup details.

e-Money card apps ask for the Japanese mobile number used for registering the card in the app and send a verification code via SMS.

Troubleshooting

Wiped old iPhone before setting up new iPhone
If you wiped the old iPhone before setting up a new one and cannot find your previous Suica Wallet card see: Recover Suica • PASMO and e-Money cards from a lost or wiped iPhone. Other topics can be found on the Apple Pay Suica • PASMO Guide.

Robust network connection is extremely important!
Make sure iPhone has a good WiFi or 4G/5G network connection and confirm you are outside of the 2am~4am JST Mobile Suica • Mobile PASMO system maintenance window. Do not use free WiFi or carrier auto-connect WiFi, they are notoriously unreliable. Don’t worry about losing your card SF account balance or commute plan information. Apple Pay iCloud and the Suica • PASMO systems preserve all of your card information. Just make sure that you are signed in with the same Apple ID on your new iPhone and Apple Pay is turned on. Remember that even a good WiFi network connection can quickly bog down when setting up a new iPhone, make sure you have a clean connection when adding Wallet cards.

Suica, PASMO, ICOCA card ID number changes
The Suica or PASMO card ID number may change when transferred to a new iPhone or Apple Watch Wallet. Linked services like EX App (smartEX and Express Reservation), Touch and Go Shinkansen and JR East Ekinet Shinkansen eTickets stop working when the Suica, PASMO, ICOCA ID number changes and users must manually update information with each linked service account to re-link services with the new ID #. For Suica and PASMO getting full ID number requires a transit card issuer app such as Suica or PASMO app, ICOCA displays the full ID number in Wallet card details.

Transferring Suica • PASMO to new iPhone with Wallet app

How long will the Suica card shortage last?

The first indication that something was up the FeliCa chip supply chain came on May 31 as an small announcement from Iwatekenkotsu Co., Ltd that the scheduled last leg of their Suica 2 in 1 Iwate Green Pass bus support rollout would be delayed due to new IC reader device procurement delays.

This was quickly followed by a large joint press release from JR East and PASMO on June 2 announcing that unregistered Suica and PASMO cards, the plastic ones that people can buy in Tokyo area station kiosks, would not be available starting June 8, ‘until further notice’.

On July 31 JR East • PASMO announced that registered Suica and PASMO plastic cards would not be available from August 2, expanding upon the June 8 sales suspension of unregistered Suica and PASMO plastic cards. The news turned media heads but was not a surprise to industry analysts and insiders.

The official reason for the Suica plastic card sales suspension is ‘the global chip shortage,’ but that doesn’t sound right when there are gluts out there. These things can be complex so I asked an old colleague who specializes in chip production analysis about the situation. He had this to say:

Domestic manufacturers of non-volitive memory of the type used in FeliCa chips, reduced manufacturing capacity (the NAND market segment is currently in a recession due to overproduction and excess inventory). This reduction came when there was an increase of inbound visitors to Japan buying Suica and PASMO cards. There was also increased demand for new Suica purchases due to the expansion of the Suica area to the Tohoku region, because the population is not as large as Kanto and Kansai, demand is expected to settle down soon.

However as production capacity will not return to previous levels, there is a high possibility that supply and demand will continue to be tight to some extent.

Other Japanese sources say another factor is that all transit IC manufacturing has been sub-contracted out to Taiwan. In short, buckle up folks, it’s going to be a long bumpy ride as in addition to manufacturers cutting production due to the non-volitive memory glut, Japanese IC card production (FeliCa chip, antenna, card, etc.) has been farmed out to Taiwan. As the saying goes, they’re always a great risk putting all ones eggs in one basket, especially with chip production. But no matter how many times companies learn this hard lesson, companies soon forget.

The May 27 Tohoku Suica launch and Suica 2 in 1 Region Affiliate card launches are certainly a short term factor in the FeliCa chip shortage as JR East is still selling both registered and unregistered Suica cards in the Tohoku region and Suica 2 in 1 Region Affiliate cards. Outside of the Tohoku area JR East and PASMO will continue to sell plastic commuter passes and inbound speciality cards like Welcome Suica and PASMO PASSPORT, however inventory is tight and JR East reduced the number of Welcome Suica sales outlets on August 2.

People assume that Transit IC cards from other regions like ICOCA or SUGOCA are readily available but this is not the case as operators are quietly limiting sales outlets. SUGOCA for example is not available at station kiosks but kept ‘under the counter’: buyers have to go the nearest JR Train Reservation office and ask for it. Expect this to start happening for all regular non-commuter pass Transit IC cards as well, partly to control inventory, partly to keep scalpers from cleaning out transit cards from kiosk station machines for resale.

Why not use Mobile Suica and Mobile PASMO then? Unfortunately the mobile situation for inbound visitors isn’t great: visitors with only VISA cards or Android are basically out of luck.

So unless VISA lifts their foreign card Mobile Suica blockade, and it has been in place for a year now, even Apple Pay Suica • PASMO • ICOCA users are limited to using Mastercard and Amex cards…using cash recharge. More on that situation in later post.

The easiest solution for JR East and PASMO is to encourage domestic Suica and PASMO users to go with Mobile Suica and Mobile PASMO instead of plastic cards. They are already doing that but expect more Mobile Suica and Mobile PASMO promotion campaigns and reward point enticements. If anything, the plastic Suica • PASMO card shortage is the best Mobile Suica • PASMO promotion ever.

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 Eki-Net ticket holders who couldn’t change ticket reservations. Mobile Suica was offline so no refunding was necessary because nobody could use the Mobile Suica credit card recharge service. No need to refund what people can’t buy.

A shorter but much more problematic outage happened on June 27. Media mistakenly reported that Mobile Suica was down but this was not the case as Mobile Suica on Android was working just fine. It was an Apple Pay problem: Apple Pay servers went down from heavy demand on Apple Pay ICOCA launch day, taking down not only Apple Pay Suica recharge but also PASMO, ICOCA, nanaco, WAON, Octopus, China T-Union, adding credit cards and other Wallet services worldwide. As the outage took place during the Japanese business day, JR East had to refund iOS Suica App users who attempted to buy or use Suica Green Car tickets during the Apple Pay outage.

Just as things were settling down, another even shorter 40 minute period of trouble occurred on July 8 at 12:00~12:40 JST. Again the media reported that Mobile Suica was down, again they were mistaken, and again it wasn’t an JR East or Mobile Suica problem, it was a much wider, and unreported, EMV credit card payment network outage. EMV transactions on readers everywhere were not responding, and they were not working for Apple Pay or Google Pay. However FeliCa payment network cards were working.

And finally there was, yet another, Apple Pay and Wallet outage on July 14 from 17:45 to 18:30 JST, with another round of Japanese media bashing poor old Mobile Suica without checking for the wider Apple Pay outage.

Mobile Suica caught the media blame because they were the only company duly reporting the problems on Mobile Suica support SNS services. JR East never lays an outage blame on Apple Pay, or any other service partner because they know Mobile Suica users don’t care, they only want to know when things are not working and when they will be fixed. This is the way it should be done because they are giving their users fast, accurate, service information…even if that means they have to take the media and SNS blame that comes with it.

But despite all the Mobile Suica outages including the EMV payment network one, the Suica card itself always remained working, both digital or plastic versions. As long as there is money on the card it works for transit and payments, and cash recharge is available 24/7. This is an under appreciated but very important aspect of the Transit IC system: there is always a non-network fail safe cash backup. Japanese never put all their household finances in one basket, cash is always the one thing that works after an earthquake, typhoon, natural or manmade infrastructure damaging disaster strikes.

In the EMV credit card payment network outage there was, without doubt, unreported trouble with open loop system test deployments on Nankai, Fukuoka Metro and other QUADRAC • stera transit operated systems, which all open loop systems in Japan use: it’s the only open loop player in town.

Unlike Mobile Suica however, when the credit card payment processing network goes down, open loop doesn’t have a fail safe cash backup. And while that’s not a problem now with small installation test sites and a tiny user base, it will be when open loop goes big time. The transit companies deploying open loop have an obligation to take care of their customers, but will they take JR East-like responsibility when QUADRAC goes down, or stera goes down, or NTT Data CAFIS, payment processing centers, or mobile carrier networks? Because believe me they will. All highly connected, interdependent networks do. That’s why we always need alternative methods and networks. Too bad that VISA is working to remove the non-EMV transit gate competition in Japan.

The Sad State of Apple Pay Suica Guides

Now that tourists are back in Japan it’s time to take a look at the state of Apple Pay Suica English language guides. Since AtaDistance is mostly one big Apple Pay Suica (and Apple Pay PASMO and now also Apple Pay ICOCA ) guide site, it’s helpful to examine other guides in case I’m missing something. My basic stance is one size does not fit all. The more good guides that are out there, the better. But with conditions: the guide must be accurate, up to date, easy to understand, and so on.

You might not realize it but the Apple Pay Suica landscape has changed a lot since the 2016 launch on iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2. At the time Suica was limited to Japanese models and plastic Suica card transfer to Wallet. Suica App was the only way to add a digital card. Here’s what has changed:

  • 2017: Global NFC support in all iPhone 8 / Apple Watch Series 3. Any model sold in any country can add and use Suica.
  • 2018: Express Transit Mode Cards with Power Reserve. iPhone XS/XR and later iPhone models all support Express Transit Mode Power Reserve, if the iPhone battery drains too far, Power Reserve mode kicks in and you have up to 5 hours of reserve battery to complete your transit. As regular non-Shinkansen Suica transit is limited to 2 hours from gate entry, 5 hours of Express Transit Power Reserve is more than enough to get you to the exit gate.
  • 2019: iOS 13 Wallet now has direct Suica add card support in Wallet. No more Suica App nonsense.
  • 2021: iOS 15 Wallet now has a region free add Transit Card category. No more device Region switching to Japan to add Suica, PASMO, or ICOCA nonsense.

User guides are like underwear and socks, if not changed regularly, they stink. Most Apple Pay Suica guides out there are stinky outdated guides with obsolete and confusing information…road kill you must steer around. The biggest mistake, by far, is ‘use Suica App’, which is irrelevant because you add and use Suica, PASMO, or ICOCA directly in Wallet. People endlessly confuse and equate using Suica with using Suica App. They are 2 separate, unrelated things.

With that in mind, let’s take at look at some current guides and grade them using the trusty old US school report card format (A=excellent, B=good, C=fair, D=poor, F=fail).

  1. Apple Support Add a Suica, PASMO, or ICOCA card to Apple Wallet (Grade: A+), the gold standard go to guide for adding Suica, PASMO, and ICOCA. Not flashy or fancy but always up to date.
    Apple Support Use Suica, PASMO, or ICOCA cards on iPhone or Apple Watch in Japan (Grade: B+), almost great but docked a notch for outdated Suica App information (Suica In App Shinkansen eTickets were eliminated in 2020).
  2. Japan Living Turn Your iPhone or Android into a Mobile Suica/PASMO IC Card (Grade: A-), a decent iPhone guide, but as the majority of short term visitors don’t have an Osaifu-Keitai Android device, that part is less guide, more wishful thinking.
  3. GaijinPot How to Use a Mobile IC App (Grade: F), not only obsolete and incorrect when it was created in 2020, a lousy Suica App guide to boot.
  4. Travel Codex How to Add Your Japanese Suica Card to iPhone 8 or iPhone X (Grade: D), outdated plastic only Region changing nonsense, nothing about adding digital Suica.
  5. Tokyo Cheapo Setting up a virtual (mobile) Suica card in Japan (Grade: F), a cheapo worthless guide as the writer had no idea what they were writing about, mashing together Wallet and Suica App into one confusing mess.
  6. GaijinPot YouTube How To Use PASMO & SUICA with an iPhone For Commuting in Japan (Grade: D) decent guide for getting plastic Suica but servers up confusing mobile information “some iPhones cannot be used” and so on, why not just say iPhone 8 and later? Garbage content.
  7. Smart Japan YouTube How to add transit card in your iphone (Grade: D), plastic narrated non-guide for transferring a plastic Suica. Not helpful.
  8. Automation Fixation YouTube Using Suica with iPhone and Apple Watch without Apple Pay (Grade: B+) Helpful video that covers all the basics with an unfortunate focus on transferring plastic Suica and cash recharge because the creator only has a VISA card. It’s important to remember that foreign issue VISA cards don’t for recharge because VISA, not JR East, is blocking them, use Mastercard or AMEX instead.

Other blogs with outdated or confusing Suica guidance to avoid: Swiss Mac User, Shutterwhale, Tap Down Under, Kevin Chen, HIS Malaysia, Hiroshi Sensei, and How to ride trains/busses cashless in Kansai that references the long dead SuicaEng app, but since it also references AtaDistance I have your ass covered. And let’s not forget the breathtakingly incompetent UnSeen Japan post by Himari Semans that attempts to explain the transit IC card system…a piece of crap that not only neglects the ground breaking development of Mobile Suica but confuses a Japan Rail Pass with Transit IC cards.

You have been warned: most Apple Pay Suica English guides are content creator one offs, tossed out to flog crappy service content, quickly forgotten about, vacuumed up by search engine bots and vomited up in Google search results. Use the Apple Support pages, they are easy to understand, guaranteed up to date and localized in many languages. You can’t go wrong. And if you want a deep dive into the Mobile Suica universe, there’s always my up to date user guides.

That said, there are some fine Transit IC • Suica video guides focused on plastic cards. I highly recommend: SUICA CARD JAPAN | What’s the BEST CARD for TOURISTS? How to BUY-USE-TOP UP? JAPAN TRAVEL GUIDE as it covers the background and basic differences of choosing regular Suica or Welcome Suica.

Another handy guide is How to charge Mobile Suica with coins. Personally I only use Apple Pay Recharge and JR East station recharge kiosks, convenience stores, recharge ATMS only take paper bills. You’ll have to search but most non-JR East stations seem to have a mobile friendly recharge kiosk that takes coins. Handy for keeping your real wallet nice and trim.

How much does Suica Off-Peak Commuter Pass really save you?

Peak Time at JR Koenji station
JR East stations in the Off-Peak commute zone have posted station peak times and gate displays will also change during peak time
JR East Off-Peak Commuter Pass PR vid

With the new train schedule and barrier-free transit tariff going into effect on March 18, current Suica Commuter pass users like myself who use the JRE POINT Off-Peak Commuter Point Service that ends this month, face a dilemma: does the Off-Peak Commuter Pass offer the same level of JRE POINT reward savings? Let’s face it, in these inflationary and looming tax increase times, pinching every point to yen counts.

It comes down to 3 choices: (1) a more expensive regular commuter pass that is difficult to swallow without the off-peak transit point return, (2) a less expensive Suica Off-Peak commuter pass without off-peak transit points, (3) no commuter pass with repeat transit points.

As my work place pays commuting expenses based on regular non-commuter pass transit fare, going with the less expensive off-peak commuter pass lets me pocket the difference. So my choice basically comes down to off-peak commuter pass or no commuter pass with repeat transit points, depending on which one gives better JRE POINT returns, better purchase price savings, or both.

Here is a comparison of the price increases for my 6 month commuter pass between JR East Asagaya and Tokyu Ikegami. The route is Chuo-Yamanote-transfer at Gotanda-Ikegami. The JR East portion covers 11 stations and 15 kilometers of track. Tokyu covers 12 stations and 11 kilometers of track.

Right away we can see that the JR East fare increase basically adds the barrier-free tariff, a 1.4% increase. The Tokyu fare increase is more than just the tariff, a lot more at 13.8%, likely including electricity price increases, salary increases, and what not. Tokyu also does not offer an off-peak option.

Now that we have the new commuter pass prices for both JR East and Tokyu, let’s run a simulation to find which configuration has the best JRE POINT returns. For the latter I used the very handy JRE POINT simulator, highly recommended for running reward point numbers. Remember, that off-peak and repeat points only apply to JR East fares.

As my work place covers the regular fare price, old and new regular fare difference is set at zero. Off-Peak points are calculated for 6 months based on 2022 returns. Repeat and recharge points are calculated on 20 round trips between Asagaya and Gotanda a month x 6 months for old and new fares. The return is the purchase difference plus JRE POINT with 1 point = 1 yen.

The simulation results are pretty much in line with my expectations. Suica Off-Peak commuter passes do give you the best value, by a little bit, especially when your company is reimbursing you at regular fare rates, which many companies seem to do. You also get the best value when your commute is exclusive to JR East lines as JR East has not raised fare increases, only adding the barrier-free tariff. The return drops when including connecting non-JR East lines but still give the best overall return. One thing is for certain: if you ride JR East lines regularly with Suica and are not registered with JRE POINT, you are throwing money away.

Gird yourself for the March 18 Suica Off-Peak launch because there will be a online crush of people like me, cancelling and refunding regular passes, and purchasing new off-peak passes. And don’t forget that date is also the launch of Mobile Suica passes for high school and junior high school students. Don’t be surprised if Suica App has a meltdown from the stampede. Good luck with simulations and finding the best way to save on transit costs.

Mobile Suica support has posted special help pages for refunding current regular passes for new off-peak passes and with renewing regular passes to include newly added stations (available from March 18).