Holy **** man… almost 20 years living in Japan and I had no idea regarding private/JR lines! Thanks for the explanation.
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Apple Pay and Express Transit Mode Now Support PASMO Transit Cards in Japan
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Holy **** man… almost 20 years living in Japan and I had no idea regarding private/JR lines! Thanks for the explanation.
Very nice; just did this (living in Tokyo). So, a few quick pointers - you don't need to download the PASMO app for this to work. You do need to change your phone's region to Japan for the PASMO option to show up in wallet but, once it is added you don't need to keep it set to Japan. I changed my region back to the U.K. once the PASMO was setup and it remains visible in my Wallet and usable, including for top-ups (I need my phone to remain set to the U.K. for Apple News, otherwise that vanishes...
)
So far, so smooth - and about time!
)So far, so smooth - and about time!
The SUICA app is garbage, as is JR's payment processor. But if you have a credit card that allows for in-app Apple Pay purchases, you can mostly ignore the app (except for some of the more advanced features I guess). Charging through Wallet also avoids the payment processing issues.
The commuter pass edge case is a good point. I've never worked for a company stingy enough to require that I buy one...
Thanks for the tip about the app too!
Where I live we have just one transportation card for the whole country, this could be so useful, but no, Apple wants to have their share, the EU should be forcing Apple to open up NFC.
I still remember my first visit in my now favourite bar in Tokyo when the owner told me that he doesn't accept Suica and everybody in the bar was laughing. On my second trip when I got an Apple Watch and a Suica I understood why
It is incredibly convenient to have a Suica on your wrist. Especially as a tourist. It would have saved me so much trouble on my first trip buying tickets for the metro for every single ride This, vending machines and 7eleven I really miss.Apple Pay Pasmo is only possible because of the cooperation of Apple, JR East (who handles all the infrastructure for Apple Pay Pasmo) and the Pasmo alliance. If the iPhone’s NFC is ever forced to be open to everyone’s usage you’ll get ****** apps with ****** backend and ****** experience.
It’s amazing how an entire continent is still living in their own bubble.
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many previously cash-only places now support PayPay.
I’ve been successfully using PayPay as fallback in many stores that usually only take cash.
I never carry cash and almost never had to run to the closest konbini to get some.
Melbourne (AU) Metro and various bus networks, are you paying attention?... Transport NSW has already done it... The world has done it...
You can move your current balance over from your card and even your 定期券 with it! Pretty awesome. Now I just need a new telephone to support it.
It’s only possible because they finally settled on an agreement for their share cut. If it ain’t that why would you think it took 4 years to implement basically the same fkin card as Suica. It’s about the % cut, always has been. Ridicule all of the decisions made by the EU as you want but I’m completely on board with the decision of opening up the NFC chip. The transit card in some countries worked fine with Samsung Pay and Google Pay, there is no other reason for Apple to take this long, someone has to force them to cut their BS and I’m really glad that the EU did.
About the user experience, we’ll have to see, we don’t know yet what kind of accessibility level the EU expects to be granted from Apple.
Been using Suica via Apple Pay in Japan for awhile now. It's easy to use for trains, taxis, convenience stores, etc. I don't even have to authenticate every time I want to use it for the train. It's much easier than dealing with a physical card.
You just top up within Wallet. All the SuicaEng app really does is install the Suica Card into your wallet. You basically don't need to use it after that job is done.
I have a suica card on my ATT locked iPhone, I doubt that will be an issue.
Well, that's your opinion.
So nobody except Apple can make a good experience/App/backend...yeah right.
Honestly, I only found out about it because I was hellbent on using a mobile transit card in my daily life… and was horribly disappointed when my home and work destinations weren’t compatible with Suica commuter passes.
I had to find out why, so that’s how I came to learn about this unintuitive quirk in the system.
I know right?!?!
I was disgusted when the App Store listed it as one of the “high quality apps we recommend” one time. It’s not a high quality app, it’s reminiscent of one of the first apps back in the App Store’s early days. It looks all pretty and nice until you enter *any* submenu; then it’s a welcome to hell.
Not sure if it was going to helpbut it was worth a try if nothing else!
Japanese smart payment system PASMO today announced that it has launched support for Apple Pay, allowing users to pay for transit fares and other transactions using their iPhone or Apple Watch. Express Transit is also supported, which allows users to quickly pass through transit gates without having to wake or unlock their devices or authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID.
PASMO is similar to and interoperable with Suica, a transit system that has been compatible with Apple Pay and Express Transit mode for several years. PASMO is accepted on a number of train lines and bus lines in numerous areas of Japan, although it is most prevalent in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
(Thanks, JKAussieSkater!)
Article Link: Apple Pay and Express Transit Mode Now Support PASMO Transit Cards in Japan
of course you can not pay a mobile fon subscription using a debit card.
it is highly irregular for a debit card to be able to be used for a monthly subscription of any kind.
a mobile fon company is not unique in not allowing risk of insufficient funds even if there were overdraft protection on the account since there is no way of their knowing that there is overdraft protection on that account.
a credit card payment system almost guarantees them they get their money.
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Thank you for this work around..
I changed my region back to the U.K. once the PASMO was setup and it remains visible in my Wallet and usable, including for top-ups (I need my phone to remain set to the U.K. for Apple News, otherwise that vanishes...
I hated having to give up News etc in order to install a PASMO card.
Great news!
Can't wait to get back to Japan and beep that PASMO-card again - this time perhaps via Apple Pay.
Just go away and die, COVID. Please. 😷
Can't wait to get back to Japan and beep that PASMO-card again - this time perhaps via Apple Pay.
Just go away and die, COVID. Please. 😷
That's how it used to work for me, but at some point that stopped and I only get the eye icon in wallet to check balance, but no top-up anymore.
Am in the UK but added a Suica to my iPhone for a Tokyo trip last May.
I had about 3000 Yen left on it and left it sitting there, as we hope to go back to Japan this year.
However, when I upgraded to iPhone 12 Max Pro this November, upon doing a restore on my backup the Suica card (and balance!) was gone from my Wallet.
Added it via the SuicaEng app again, but is there some way to make sure you do not loose your Suica card if / when I upgrade my iPhone again this year?
I had about 3000 Yen left on it and left it sitting there, as we hope to go back to Japan this year.
However, when I upgraded to iPhone 12 Max Pro this November, upon doing a restore on my backup the Suica card (and balance!) was gone from my Wallet.
Added it via the SuicaEng app again, but is there some way to make sure you do not loose your Suica card if / when I upgrade my iPhone again this year?
Suica card information (and therefore attached balance) is saved in iCloud backup and restored from iCloud backup when you restore or migrate your phone. So it all should work. Just follow the standard migration procedure. You might theoretically need to have Japan region set on your phone when you restore suica info from backup. But I'm not totally sure about that. I am in Japan and my phone region is always set to Japan.