With travel to Japan open again, I was able to travel to Fukuoka Japan last month for the sumo tournament. Something I've done at least once a year for over 20 years.
Japan has long been a leader in NFC (contactless) payment systems. Before traveling I was still holding two Suica cards - a JR East-issued transit card that had started to be available in shops and restaurants several years ago. There had been growing chaos with the NFC card systems - with maybe a dozen or more regionally issued card, incompatible card systems. During the Covid-19 shutdown Japan got their act together, with a majority of shops now having terminals that can accept these different NFC cards. Along with Apple Pay.
This was my first trip where I hoped and expected Apple Pay to work, generally. It rarely did, however.
When trying to make an NFC purchase, it looked like the cashiers needed to perform additional steps on their terminals to get the reader to accept the proffered device. And almost never would the Apple Pay system work, despite the Apple Pay logo being displayed near the terminals.
I had fortunately loaded the electronic Suica card into my iPhone (13 Pro Max) and eventually gave up trying to use the Apple Pay and set the phone to default to the Suica card for payment.
The Suica card needed topping up, and my usual credit cards (Chase and Bank of America) USUALLY wouldn't work to top up the Suica while in Japan. It worked fine from the US. Both banks had noted my international travel, both cards seemed to work at the stores, and the banks had not declined any transactions.
The Apple Card always worked to top-up the Suica Card.
This seems to be a fairly complex problem with multiple failure modes. The Apple Pay issue seems likely to be a training issue with the cashiers, although the system should be smart enough to "know" what card is being presented without intervention on the terminal.
Japan has long been a leader in NFC (contactless) payment systems. Before traveling I was still holding two Suica cards - a JR East-issued transit card that had started to be available in shops and restaurants several years ago. There had been growing chaos with the NFC card systems - with maybe a dozen or more regionally issued card, incompatible card systems. During the Covid-19 shutdown Japan got their act together, with a majority of shops now having terminals that can accept these different NFC cards. Along with Apple Pay.
This was my first trip where I hoped and expected Apple Pay to work, generally. It rarely did, however.
When trying to make an NFC purchase, it looked like the cashiers needed to perform additional steps on their terminals to get the reader to accept the proffered device. And almost never would the Apple Pay system work, despite the Apple Pay logo being displayed near the terminals.
I had fortunately loaded the electronic Suica card into my iPhone (13 Pro Max) and eventually gave up trying to use the Apple Pay and set the phone to default to the Suica card for payment.
The Suica card needed topping up, and my usual credit cards (Chase and Bank of America) USUALLY wouldn't work to top up the Suica while in Japan. It worked fine from the US. Both banks had noted my international travel, both cards seemed to work at the stores, and the banks had not declined any transactions.
The Apple Card always worked to top-up the Suica Card.
This seems to be a fairly complex problem with multiple failure modes. The Apple Pay issue seems likely to be a training issue with the cashiers, although the system should be smart enough to "know" what card is being presented without intervention on the terminal.
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