Japan has an e-money system that is generally convenient for everyone. In Tokyo, you can get an “IC Card” and load it with Suica or Pasmo. In other cities, the names differ, but the underlying system is the same, which is why those cards work interchangeably from city to city in Japan. Because of the well-known chip shortage, physical cards have been harder to produce, and operators have been pushing people toward mobile apps and digital wallet versions instead.
That seems reasonable. There is a catch though: you either need an iPhone OR an Android manufactured in Japan. The latter confused me. I already knew about some Japan-specific quirks, like the forced camera shutter sound on Japanese phones (Thanks upskirters), but why couldn’t I use Google Wallet or the Pasmo app on my American-bought Pixel? Pasmo showed an error saying “FeliCa” was not detected.
What is FeliCa?
From Wiki:
“FeliCa is a contactless RFID smart card system from Sony in Japan, primarily used in electronic money cards. The name stands for Felicity Card. First utilized in the Octopus card system in Hong Kong,[1] the technology is used in a variety of cards also in countries such as Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Macau, the Philippines, and the United States.”
It is also known as NFC “Type F”. From what I found online, it is faster at higher-level operations and stronger in security. But FeliCa is a closed standard, so the full specs are not public and only a narrow group of professionals can verify its details. It is said to have achieved ISO/IEC 15408 EAL6+ security level, so at minimum AES, RSA/ECC, and SHA-2/3 are involved.
So even though my Pixel had NFC, it did not have FeliCa. My options were:
- Buy a new phone just to get e-Suica.
- Buy a physical backup Suica.
I did neither. I eventually realized that Fitbit had its own wallet implementation, and that Japanese-made Fitbits include FeliCa and can provision Suica. So I now have a backup Suica on my smartwatch. I suspect other Japanese-made Android smartwatches may work too, but I haven’t tested that. Fitbit also recently migrated away from its own wallet app in favor of Google Wallet pairing. If I delete this card, I am not 100% sure I can re-provision it. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I also heard people have been patching rooted phones to add it, but… I didn’t want to root my Pixel. ¯_(ツ)_/¯