Physical (and digital) Suica/IC is accepted payment at pretty much all convenience stores and a wide variety of other chain shops. Even Starbucks. https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/suicamoney/shop.html Also generally accepted by ekiben shop and small eateries inside major train stations.

There's also NFC reader apps which can read the balance on physical IC cards. This one by "Digital Equality, Inc" works for my physical Pasmo and Icoca (yes, people can have more than 1 card, digitally and otherwise).
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/japan-...k/id1479319615
I'd have expected NXP's own "NFC TagInfo" iOS app to work but nope.

There isn't a huge difference for tourists between where physical vs digital transit cards are accepted as payment for goods. Most machines have been upgraded so they physically don't block iPhones/Apple Watch like they used to (were originally designed for IC card shapes). There are some where it comes to transit, but that's more a discussion for a different thread on online/app shinkansen eticketing https://atadistance.net/2022/01/28/m...-transit-card/. You can also tie some local transit passes to IC cards https://www.gotokyo.org/en/plan/gett...ard/index.html https://www.jreast.co.jp/multi/en/di...ket/index.html