LASNRT

I'm so thrilled about this coming to models sold overseas! I travel to Japan multiple times a year, and I was debating buying one in Japan and being stuck with the shutter sound permanently on, but now I won't have to.

Since HK's Octopus card (and other countries as well) use the same Felica technology, I'm wondering if we'll see a Apple Pay Octopus card in the near future as well...

beep88

I just transferred the SUICA to my Canadian iPhone 8. It means the plastic card is no longer usable.

Just curious does the virtual card stay with iCloud / wallet? If you factory reset and restore the phone or do a phone transfer, the SUICA re-appears like other membership cards in phone wallet?

With credit cards, you have to re-add them, which is not possible with the now-voided plastic card.

bocastephen

How were you able to add SUICA to a non-Japanese phone?

tmiw

iPhone 8/X support FeliCa regardless of country, unlike previous iPhones: http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/...watch-series-3

bocastephen

That's certainly good news - although for those who travel to Japan reasonably often, the currency arbitrage and no-tax play may still result in a lower purchase price vs buying it in the US or Canada....although I'm not so sure I trust Apple on this either, they could disable Felica on non-Japanese phones at any time or for any reason with a future update.

rustykettel

I haven't done it but the Ata Distance blog says yes- https://atadistance.net/2017/09/21/l...-new-iphone-8/. I believe someone upthread deleted their Suica and successfully readded it.

Big thank you again to freecia for posting the link to that blog! It's really been invaluable for Suica/Japan Apple Pay info in English.

bocastephen

Sorry forgot to answer this before - you must do one of two things - make sure your backups are encrypted otherwise all Apple Pay cards will be gone, and even that is not a guarantee of success. I've found on 3 occasions where I lost my SUICA card that putting the phone back to the Japan region and opening Apple Pay/Wallet will trigger a prompt to re-add the card back with it's current balance, then you can change the region back to wherever you want it.

Miyuki Marie

I lost my suica card from my apple wallet and I was able to add the card again but unfortunately, I can’t use it since it says it is still being activated. Is this normal? If yes, how long will it take to have it activated?

bocastephen

Unfortunately I have no idea - it is probably best to check with JR customer service to review your card status.

katola

Albeit true, the company can change anything in a flicker of a moment, here is the supporting knowledge base [kBase] article that was coincidentally published today:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207154

LCUF

I wonder when will JR passes be available electronically on SUICA and other electronic passes after exchanging the voucher so we don't have to go through the side gates with station personnel and instead just beep. The JR passes are rather a pain to carry around as it's not credit card / wallet size.

freecia

There are electronic JR/Suica commuter passes. The tourist JR passes are much lower in volume than the commuter passes, so it might be a while before they concentrate on the tourist versions. I would hope for an IC tap card JR tourist pass for Tokyo 2020. An English skinned Suica ios app for main menu, register, and recharge would also be nice.

Some small/countryside JR stations still don't have IC card readers. Short fares are paid with cash and spit out a ticket (usually magnetic, though I think I've also gotten some which are collected by a person). I do go to some smaller stations so having some cash is usually prudent for coin lockers or train fare. It gets quirky when you tap in at a larger station, exit at a station without IC, and the next ride involves IC at entry. It might also have a problem at exit w/ IC if it is a long distance routing from no-IC to IC. This requires a station attendant to reset/clear the interrupted trip. The paper JR tourist pass usually helps avoid all this.

LCUF

I think if they were to introduce an English version of the app, they would probably take out a lof of the functionality (communter pass purchase, etc) as if they are aiming at tourists, those functionalities won't be used most of the time? Most tourists would just need a SUICA card to deposit / tap and nothing else.

You brought up a good point about the smaller JR stations though; however if there is an electronic version, we could just show the station staff what's on the phone instead of the paper version and that should be good too right? One can hope.

rustykettel

I used my physical card on landing until my wife's ICOCA card wouldn't recharge while we were out. Thinking about the options (buying a ticket, new card, etc) when I realized I had my watch on all set to go with Suica. Passed my own card off to my wife and used my watch. Worked like a charm!

A couple of observations after several days of using it:

- wouldn't activate while exercise app was running (actually paused) and the watch locked. Apple's guide says the device should go into Suica mode while locked so I asume it was exercise mode that blocked it from working.

- reload on the watch from a Wallet credit card worked without setting up an account in the Suica iPhone app. It took about 10 minutes after the credit card authorization went through and the watch said sucessful reload until the balance changed. Something to keep in mind if you're in a hurry

- accidentally triggered the IC reader while inserting a paper ticket into a turnstile with my watch hand. Only happened once so far and it was an exit gate. Still allowed me to exit but turned red until a station staffer reset the gate.

Overall, this has been great and so much easier not to keep track of a card. I doubt I'd go back to a physical one now.

ETA: reloaded again and card value wouldn't update either on my watch or in the app. A little concerned but it finally did several hours later after swiping on an IC pad (on a bus). I assume it also syncs the card at a reader and doesn't just store the value solely on the card?

SNA_Flyer

Successfully loaded my 7 year old Suica card on to my new (US) iPhone X. Changed the region to Japan, added in wallet and good to go. Was able to add value though my Chase SR card in Apple Pay.

Works great totally happy. Now if only other transit systems could get on board.