Originally Posted by
lcpteck
I have the ICOCA IC Card which I bought from Osaka.
All IC cards in Japan have been integrated. Since you have SUICA, you can use it in Osaka as well or other parts of Japan.
However, you can't use these cards for cross regional travel, e.g. Shizuoka to Tokyo.
Originally Posted by
emma69
In London, England, the Oyster card is similar - you can use it on a variety of transport, but again, I don't think you can use it at convenience stores.
The main difference between Oyster and Suica (and other Japanese IC cards) is the former offers substantially discounted fares while the latter is simply for convenience (with the exception of a few yens rounded up to the nearest 10 yen on conventional tickets but not charged if using IC cards).