Suica

The Suica is a contactless, rechargeable electronic ticket in the form of a credit card-sized smart card that can be used in the Tokyo-Kantō area on the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) rail network in Japan. Introduced in November 2001, it can be combined with a JR-issued credit card since June 2003.

In November 2003, the Suica was used on a trial basis for the first time as an electronic purse for paying in station kiosks. This function has since been extended to many other shops.

The card can be used contactless, by simply swiping it over a reader. It is not necessary to remove the card from the wallet, which makes it possible to pay much faster than with cash. This makes the card popular with both customers and retailers.

The possibility of subsequently printing out an overview of the transactions made also provides a high level of transparency with regard to payments. The transaction data is stored in a central system under the card's identification number.

Because of the uncomplicated usability, in contrast to the German cash card, the Suica is very popular; in April 2006 there were about 16 million users, although the card has not yet been introduced nationwide in Japan.

NTT Docomo, by far the largest mobile phone provider in Japan, has been offering mobile phones with an integrated Suica function since 2006. These also offer the possibility of checking card activity and account balances at any time, as well as transferring top-ups online.

Initially valid only on local services around Tokyo, the Suica was subsequently introduced on the Shinkansen lines operated by JR East (Tohoku and Joetsu) as well as in the Sendai and Niigata metropolitan areas.

For the Osaka area, JR West launched the ICOCA IC card in November 2003; since August 2004, it has also been accepted in the JR East area, and accordingly the Suica in Osaka as well. The extension to private railways, subways and buses in Osaka and Tokyo is planned gradually for the years after 2005.

The abbreviation Suica stands for "Super Urban Intelligent CArd" and is at the same time a play on words with the Japanese words for "brisk, light" (suisui to, スイスイと) and "card" (kaado, カード), thus "suika" (スイカ), which in turn is the Japanese word for watermelon. The letters "ic" are highlighted to emphasize the smart card technology.

The card can be purchased for 1,000 yen at Midori no Madoguchi counters or from a ticket vending machine. The price includes a deposit of 500 yen, which is refunded when the card is returned. The remaining 500 yen can be used for train travel. Top-ups of up to 20,000 yen are available at selected ticket machines. The balance can be checked there, and a record of travel costs can also be printed out.

There are two types of Suica, a Suica IO card, which is used as a substitute for train tickets, and a commuter card, which is valid for travel between two places (e.g. home - work or school). The commuter card can also be used as an ordinary Suica IO card.

The card contains an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip developed by Sony under the name Felica. The same technology is still used for the following transport associations: