If you have an iPhone, don't bother getting the physical Suica card. You can add one in the Wallet app, and also charge it with your credit card directly! Moreover, you can do this ahead of time, before arrival to Japan.
Wallet app -> "+" on top right corner -> Transit Card -> Japan -> Suica.
Choose PASMO or ICOCA if you want to be different. ;-) All three are functionally equivalent.
The virtual card will work anywhere the physical card's accepted, so transit, convenience stores[0], vending machines, etc. IMHO there's no reason to get a physical card, unless you want a souvenir.
I'm sure the same could be done on Android, but I don't know the procedures.
[0] At least in Tokyo, many convenience stores will also accept contactless credit card payments (i.e. Apple Pay), even foreign cards. The process is sometimes a little convoluted, however, so if you just want to grab & go, use Suica and say "Suica de" and 99% you'll be in & out in less than a minute.
This is because ICOCA/PASMO/Suica use FeliCa rather than NFC for data. All iPhones have both FeliCa and NFC. Only Japanese Android phones would bother added FeliCa.
>IMHO there's no reason to get a physical card, unless you want a souvenir
My friends and I were unable to load our Suica using the Wallet app. It kept throwing an error. We had to visit stations that had ATM or kiosks for loading Suica that were wireless (tap instead of insert) so we could load from the card stored in Wallet app. Our one friend that had an Android was able to load his card anywhere.
This was difficult enough in Tokyo where most card loading machines are insert not tap, let alone outside of Tokyo. Most major stations seemed to support this but smaller ones were totally hit or miss.
I recall there was some issues with certain Visa cards. Ah right I did have issue where I couldn't load with my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. But I just switched to the Apple Card and it went smoothly.
So yes there may be some hurdles. However, since you can do this before arrival, you can figure out ahead of time which card(s) work and which don't.
Edit: just tried it with my CSR again and it still didn't work. Then I tried with a CapitalOne (Mastercard) card and that worked. Unfortunately, I don't have another Visa or Amex card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees, so I cannot say for sure if it's a payment network issue or bank issue. I had no issue using my CSR for contactless payments in Japan though.
There's also the ubiquity of smartphones to consider. I was there this month and everyone was using their iphone to trap in and out.
And I do mean iPhone, not generic smartphone. It seems that in Japan, iPhone is absolutely dominant and may (??) have some sort of additional chip in it (Felica?) that allows it to be used for other shopping. Presumably that is not essential for transit use as my friend with a US iphone was able to tap and pay using Apple Pay.
Perhaps a Japan reader can comment. Android doesnt seem to be supported much, and certainly not for overseas phones, as this link describes.
I recently had family visit, and all had US model phones , but two were iPhones and one was with an Android. The two with iPhones had no trouble getting a digital card issued on their phone, but the Android user was unable to since their model of phone did not have the felica chip. To my understanding, only Japanese model Android phones have this special chip. Luckily we were able to get the Android user a special Passport Pasmo only issues for tourists that expires after two weeks.
I was genuinely confused when I saw the difficulty in getting these IC cards in July. I’m even more confused to see them completely stop the sales all together.
These cards are ubiquitous in Japan so I’m very confused how this can happen.
Can someone that has some understanding of semiconductor supply chain explain what’s going on here?
The chips inside these cards surely don’t seem like the high-end chips that the AI crowds are going around.
Felica chips were made by Panasonic, but Panasonic sold their semiconductor division to Nuvoton in 2020. So perhaps Nuvoton changed something. General news tends to say that it's "semiconductor shortage", as if there's only one "semiconductor".
Wait, due to shortages they will only sell disposable cards.
Not let's simplify workflow and make all cards the reusable type.
I suppose it might be a cheap, simpler and more available IC that maybe only decrements a secure memory location. But that is stupid.
Oyster cards are surprisingly excellent despite some issues between them and contactless and NFC.
The French Navigo is not bad either, I like that registration isn't to a centralised DB. But their tickets have their own issue and not to mention their single use magstrip tickets are hopelessly fragile.
I am also lucky, I got a Suica in 2017 and I used it ever since in every trip to Japan! It seems to last quite a while.
Maybe I should get an electronic Suica on my iPhone just in case though.
After looking around Nagoya's Manaca websites [0] they don't seem to talk about any suspension of card distribution.
JR West ICOCA also seems like is business as usual [1].
Still, it is quite surprising to see an early 00s piece of technology which does not use really advanced chips to have production shortages.
Wallet app -> "+" on top right corner -> Transit Card -> Japan -> Suica.
Choose PASMO or ICOCA if you want to be different. ;-) All three are functionally equivalent.
The virtual card will work anywhere the physical card's accepted, so transit, convenience stores[0], vending machines, etc. IMHO there's no reason to get a physical card, unless you want a souvenir.
I'm sure the same could be done on Android, but I don't know the procedures.
[0] At least in Tokyo, many convenience stores will also accept contactless credit card payments (i.e. Apple Pay), even foreign cards. The process is sometimes a little convoluted, however, so if you just want to grab & go, use Suica and say "Suica de" and 99% you'll be in & out in less than a minute.