If you haven’t experienced suica, it’s like magically fast. Faster than NFC, faster than Apple Pay, faster than tap to pay, faster than Disney magic bands, faster than your work badge. It absolutely floored me every time I used it in Japan and it’s a full payment transaction.
It's not only magically fast, but it's super useful. You can use it at vending machines + convenience stores anywhere (unless it's one of those old ones that only take cash/coins and print paper tickets) and at the shops as well.
People not in Japan/Singapore/Korea/China should experience what a proper transit card done looks like.
I've used a Suica card for many years now. I agree it's both fast and reliable. One summer I was crisscrossing Tokyo by train over several days, using the Suica card, so I got to see a LOT of commuters. Lots of people were in a hurry and would run through the gates (the default state is open, it closes quickly if your card is out of funds or some other problem). Running through the gates while quickly touching the card to the reader. I've done that a couple of times myself.
It's also useful in that you can pre-order a Shinkansen ticket, for example, and link that purchase to your Suica card, which you then use for the Shinkansen gate. If there are other fees (which there may be) they're just deducted from the money the card holds, as usual. Makes everything very simple.
For me a physical card is easier than using a phone. A phone is so much larger so I would need to get it from a pocket somewhere, while the Suica card I can keep in my jeans pocket or some other easy place.
It was funny during Expo in Osaka on the massive metro station - you could just zip in with the suica, while the less knowledgeable foreign tourists would form long queues in front of the special gates where they could pay by a payment card, which were glacialy slow in comparison.
I also did prefer my plastic Pasmo (essentially the same as suica) card until I learned during my last trip, that it can only be recharged with cash :-/
This doesn't especially bother me, but it is a kinda funny workflow to go to an ATM to withdraw cash (with your bank card) only to immediately put it back into the machine (to charge your IC card).
You can create digital Pasmo and charge it through mobile wallet.
> People not in Japan/Singapore/Korea/China should experience what a proper transit card done looks like.
In Prague city transit does not have limiting gates. If you bought unlimited ticket, you just walk in bus/tram/metro and that is it. No touching, scanning, showing, nothing. Maybe once a month (or even rarer) you might encounter a patrolling controller who would ask you to show your ticket, but that's it.
Same in Berlin. I think the reasoning is that it'd cost more money to fit ticket gates compared to loss of revenue from fare evaders.
Makes for such a smooth journey as most people are doing the right thing.
> If you bought unlimited ticket
And that's the difference. IIRC, you have to periodically top up your Suica card with money which then gets deducted from the balance each time you use it.
In Europe, there is no such thing - sure, you can buy a lot of single ride tickets and then use them when you need to, but you have to stamp the ticket when you start each ride, which does seem a little more inconvenient.
> In Europe, there is no such thing
The European public transport system is not some centralised system that should be generalised like this. The system in the Netherlands has worked like Suica for years (but without the extremely fast card reading unfortunately). You simply tap on with your public transport card or bank/credit card and tap out when you get off. Subscriptions, automatic/manual top ups, it's all possible.
I much prefer convenient over fast, being able to just tap my phone's uploaded IC card/alipay without having to open it up or switch cards is maybe 200ms slower, but I don't have to think or change what I'm doing. Plus with alipay it will just autodeduct so I don't ever have to think about that as well, though Apple wallet Suica makes it easy to reload too.
JRE required Suica to be instantly accessible so there's a setting in Apple Wallet to set a card to a default quick transit use card(forgot the exact name). If configured as such, just poking the gate antenna with earpiece end of an iPhone instantly completes the transaction just as fast as a real card does.
(yes, the antenna is in the top FaceID/Dynamic Island area, Osaifu Keitai spec requires a □つ icon wherever antenna is located, which Apple managed to completely ignore)
a setting in Apple Wallet to set a card to a default quick transit use card
Because it's not the easiest setting to find: Settings/Wallet & Apple Pay/Express Transit Card
The Wallet app prompts you to set this up when you initially add the transit card too, IIRC.
It’s also enabled by default now if I remember correctly.
FWIW on Android, Google Wallet tells me "Transit Cards: These cards never require verification", and indeed I can just wave my phone at the terminal without unlocking it.
And here I was all this time double pressing power button to open wallet like a fool. The more you know.
Is this different to Express Mode, which has been a thing for years for all kinds of cards (including car keys)?
Express Mode originally launched as Express Transit with only support for Suica, Beijing and Shanghai cards. It was then renamed to Express Mode when support for the other modes was added.
This is a consequence of the world being eaten by managed code. IBM made POS checkout terminals that were blazingly fast 40 years ago. Now every modern data processing technogy is glacial by comparison.
The story makes clear that constraints matter. Product teams build against specified constraints. If latency isn’t one of them, they’re going to sacrifice it if it helps meet the defined requirements more quickly and cost-effectively.
Every time I see a shoddy piece of work, I know which constraint was sacrificed.
Alipay in China for transit and pay is also easy. No card, just a QR on your phone. It can even be a screenshot of the QR code.
QRs will always be so much more cumbersome than blindly tapping a card or your phone.
Agreed. It also requires that you unlock your phone.
But you should probably just get a suica in your apple or google wallet, you don’t actually need an IC card. I’m not sure if using a phone makes it less fast though, I couldn’t tell (we had to get a card for my kid since he doesn’t have a phone).
Definitely better than the QR codes used by China.
You can use a digital Suica in Google Wallet only if your Android phone has Japan-spec hardware . International Android phones bought outside Japan generally cannot support digital Suica cards in Google Wallet.
All iPhones can.
Pixel phones bought outside Japan supposedly can if you do a little adb hacking to enable it, but I don't have a Pixel to try it myself.
Pixel phones outside of Japan are missing the Felica chip.
Apple pays the fee for all phones in the world to have the chip. Google only pays for Japan devices.
As far as I could tell from everything I've read from multiple sources, every Pixel since Pixel 4 _has_ the chip, it's just not enabled and you can enable it with rooting.
https://xdaforums.com/t/global-pixel-device-unlock-felica-su...
The chip is not missing, the configuration is.
I assume it's a licensing issue, where Google is too cheap to pay JR for the phones sold outside of Japan, so only setup the JP models and only pay the license for those.
You can move your alipay card into apple wallet and have it as the default payment method, so do you don't even have to swipe or turn on your phone, it will even work in low-power/off mode.
It doesn't make it less fast! The same model is implemented on the mobile side, which uses the same technology.
It’s sooooo convenient to buy Shinkansen tickets digitally too with it all linked.
It appears to be based on NFC-F with latency under 200 ms, called FeliCa. Similar to regular NFC at around 300 ms latency plus any network times.
https://www.sony.co.jp/en/Products/felica/NFC
It was a completely custom standard conceived by JNR/JRE and Sony during 1990s-2000s, that they eventually managed to be included into the common NFC specification through years of lobbying and pressuring.
It has really surprised me a few times.
It reminds me of that oft touted experiment where a light lit up within some number of milliseconds of a person hitting a button, and people perceive it as happening before they hit the button.
Same deal with Opal in Sydney - the old school opal card processes a second or so faster than a card/apple pay/google pay that you can just keep walking. Smashed into the barrier the one time I forgot my card.
Meanwhile in another city not far away, the cards are instant but the gate has to think for a while. It's inconsistent too, so you inevitably run into it.
I feel either the gate is making international round trip calls through the internet to some SaaS service. Our it's actually doing a face scan and lookup.
Something that is amazing about Sydney’s system though is that as a visitor to Sydney you can likely use the train system without needing an app or any sign up. Just use your credit or debit card via nfc on your phone (or the physical one)
I was honestly so impressed by that, you mean I can just tap on? Don’t need to stand here outside the gates for 10 minutes entering my info into a frustrating app? Don’t need to buy a $10 card, only $5 of which I’ll ever use? Even with suica being pretty easy to set up on iPhone, this is definitely something Sydney’s got over Japan’s system.
Yep, and it's increasingly common around the world. In Australia, it's also fully rolled out in Brisbane and I believe it's just about finished being rolled out in Melbourne too.
It's now rolled out in Perth too, I think.
Ah that’s great news, I’m from Perth but currently living abroad.
New York and Seattle both have the same thing and it's wonderful. Google Wallet even allows the user to set it to not require an unlock for transit transactions.
Same in London, at least for Transport for London (TfL) services (including buses and trams).
Singapore too
I’ve never noticed any delay on the London underground with Apple Pay or a normally debit card - certainly not a second. Havent used an oyster for years but I don’t remember it being faster.
Definitely slower to use a card or your phone in London.
I remember when they first allowed card use more than a decade ago and it broke the flow quite a bit at rush hour as people were so used to the Oyster card's timing that they'd run into the back of people using cards or people using cards would run into the gate as it had not opened as quickly as they were used to. Quite a bit of commentary around it during that time:
https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/2zc104/that_extra_s...
Maybe I am just plainly wrong or encountered some specific stations, but this does not feel true from my experience.
During my last visit to London (in 2025), it felt noticeably slower than even NYC subway tap-to-pay.
Suica is a whole other beast that isn't even in the same category of speed. It genuinely feels sub-200ms instantaneous.
Correct, Suica is faster than Oyster (card), which is faster than paying with bank cards or phones in London.
(I haven't used the NYC system.)
The card might be fast but getting one as a tourist is kind of a hassle
I heard from friends that physical Suica cards tend to be difficult to obtain these days at times, but digital one isn't at all.
Took me roughly a minute to create one within Apple Wallet ahead of my trip, and that was it. Didn't need to install any apps or register on any websites, because creating a Suica card is natively supported in the wallet app.
Idk how the situation is like with Suica card on Android though, outside of the fact that unless the phone was purchased in Japan, it will typically lack the necessary hardware for it (which isn't a concern with iPhones, because all regional versions include it).
Well you can get it only in some kind of machines, and you need to pay it cash. Also you need to use cash to charge it, and you can charge it minimum by 1000 or 500 yen at a time depending on the station, not less.
The digital version only works on iPhones, since Android phones sold outside Japan doesn't have the Felica chip, or if they have it (e.g. Google Pixel) is disabled in EU/US firmware because the manufacturer doesn't want to pay a fee for every phone to Sony for something 99.999% of people that will never travel to Japan would use.
It's completely anonymous and available on many ticket machines. There are some half-wrong info that you have to fill in a form, but that's only for commuter passes and registered cards.
You just tap Buy Suica and insert two 1000 yen bills. The system keeps 500 yen as a deposit, which is refunded when you return the card, but it's also $3.50 for a little memorabilia.
If you absolutely don't want the keepsake, you can create a virtual card from Wallet on iPhone(7 or later). I believe an app is not needed through that path. Those can be loaded from your credit card, or at pink ticket vendors with the cavity for devices(IIRC the latter didn't work initially).
I think the reason some people are complaining about the Suica stuff nowadays is that since... I think 2021 there's been stock shortages so getting a physical Suica involves going to specific places (I think at airports for example?) to get one. There's also now this "Welcome Suica" that you can get but it only works in certain areas of the country (so much for the IC standard...)
I believe you can't get a physical one from the ticket machines anymore unless you are getting a commuter pass, but I might be wrong.
Yeah, at airports (where most travellers arrive). I recently arrived at Narita airport, you go down to the trains and there's an office you go to where a human being spends a couple minutes helping you get a Suica. It's great because you can also ask any questions you have about usage at the same time.
There was a brief period where it was difficult but that's gone now, you can set it up easily on Apple Wallet at least (apparently Google wallet is different?).
It used to be easy to get one from a 7-11, then it was hard for a bit, then it was easy again with digital wallets.
Yes, that was during the period where there was a chip shortage for things like cars and other industrial products, this also affected production of Suica cards at the time. During that period you couldn't buy unregistered Suica cards, but you could still buy registered cards (registered to your name). This was simply used as a mechanism to limit the number of cards because of the shortage, and you could also buy those "visitor" Suica cards (those I don't like, for various reasons).
Anyway, that problem is long gone.
nah, you walk to a machine at the airport and get the tourist one.
I had to get 4 as I was traveling with kids who don't own phones and could get cheaper rates, took a few minutes, you waste a few yen but get to keep the souvenir.
I noticed that. I could have sworn I got one with a credit card, but can't refill it.
Maybe you can refill it with cash? Or did I have to buy it with cash? and when you leave everything expires.
I've been able to get multiple over the past nearly 10 years, very easily. I think there was a relatively brief shortage toward the end of the COVID closure, maybe the first year or so Japan was re-opened. But generally you could still get them, just not at major hubs.
Is it?
https://www.jreast.co.jp/en/multi/welcomesuica/welcomesuica....
On iPhone it’s insanely easy to you just request right from the wallet app and you can even reload it there.
Super easy via your Apple wallet
Recently the physical cards are sold at a machine inside Haneda airport.
I bought one from a machine easily at a train station. It spits the card out for you.
No, just download the Suica app and top it up with Apple pay.
Really? In 2009 I just bought one at a vending machine, but I haven't really explored Japan since then
We purchased it from a machine recently. By the way, can I just say: Japan cares about UI in a very different way to Europe. The screens had pleasant graphics and sound, and the buttons for pressing in numbers felt so good. It just felt like someone who cares designed that machine. I did not like the refill-your-IC-card machines though, they made very loud noises so you wouldn't forget to take your IC card with you.
The best part is if you press the help button a real person pops out of the machine in a few seconds.
That was not my experience in Japan; I found that it still took a second to go through every time, just like in New York/etc.
Am in Japan now and can confirm: you got a broken one. It's magically fast, everywhere. I prefer it even at the 7-eleven. Why wait the interminable 2 seconds for your Visa 'cardo touchy' to work when Suica is literally instant.
Reading this article it makes sense why it feels too fast to be real, especially when using a powered phone. The things are already communicating as my hand is moving towards the reader. By the time it gets there, it's happened.
Stunningly good.
Pleasant alternative from a lot of US transit systems, eg BART int eh Bay Area which is the most customer-hostile service I'eve ever used. giant gates that seem right out of a dystopian science-fiction movie, an achingly slow card readers which absolutely force you to break stride no matter how ready you are. Add in the extremely unhelpful station attendants and you've got a recipe for a public transport service that people actively avoid if they possibly can. Then they turn around and ask for voters to approve extra tax money. I'm convinced none of the people on the BART board actually use the service.
> ... giant gates ...
There's a big difference in antisocial behaviour and visible mental health issues between Tokyo and San Francisco.
"San Francisco’s BART found that systemwide crime fell 41 percent after new gates were installed. Even more impressively, across the ten stations with the most corrective maintenance needs, staff time spent on in-system maintenance fell 96 percent, which suggests that fare evaders also cause most unreported crime, like littering, vandalism, and graffiti."
https://www.city-journal.org/article/transit-crime-fare-gate...
Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
From the underlying press release (emphasis added): BART PD boosted the visible safety presence in the system by doubling officer presence systemwide and ensuring police are riding trains more. This approach is strengthened by BART’s ongoing use of unarmed Crisis Intervention Specialists, Transit Ambassadors, Fare Inspectors, and Community Service Officers.
Safety efforts were also bolstered by the installation of 715 new fare gates at all 50 stations, a project completed in August 2025, four months ahead of schedule.
More to the point, mone of that is relevant to the fact that the giant gates impose a burden on lawful users as well as any criminals they might deter, nor is it relevant to the extremely slow performance of the automated gates themselves. The experience of riding BART sucks for law-abiding paying passengers.
+1 you can walk through the subway turnstile and not slow down.
Anything is faster than NY turnstile lol.
In NY, sometime i have to double pay because the card that worked on bus doesn't work on subway...
OMNY with iOS Express Mode is crazy fast. I don't even have to do anything besides hold my wrist or phone next to the entrance: https://support.apple.com/en-us/105123
I don't often do transfers, though.
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