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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

Hardware/software-wise, yes, but putting money on the card is a problem if you don't have a credit/debit card issued by a Japanese bank (or perhaps a few others). That's fine for locals, of course, but not helpful for many foreign visitors.

I had no problem topping it up with apple pay while in Japan.

Correct. No Japanese CC needed.

Yes but I'm not going to buy a phone with an OS that I dislike just for my occasional trips to Japan.

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.

No, the chip is there, gated by a SKU check, so that Google only pays the licensing fees for their Japanese SKU.

Thanks, I forgot about. I have an iPhone so didnt have to worry about the incompatibility with Android. If it makes android users feel any better, here in Seattle orca cards can go on android phones but not iPhones.

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.

Thats interesting, but it seems most subway systems are still QR code based? Anyways, I’ll try to see if I can get that to work next time I go to China.

Oh, now I remember: Tianfu Tong (Chengdu) isnt supported, and I didn’t spend anytime in Shanghai or Beijing on my last trip.

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.

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