New iPhone feature for tap-to-pay transportation services in Japan

The feature uses FeliCa technology from Sony. It enables Japanese to pay for public bus and train passes with their smartphones instead of physical payment cards. Users have to just tap their phones against the entrance scanners. Apple has planned to launch these new features with the next iPhone models, which the company is set to unveil in September 2016.

The FeliCa chip can process a transaction in 0.1 seconds, according to Sony. Super-swift transaction speeds are really important for adoption in the fast-paced environment of Japan’s transit network.

In Japan there are several different providers of transit payment cards based on the type of transit and areas within the country and FeliCa chip is the standard technology underlying the service. According to Bloomberg, Apple intends to work with multiple transit card providers. The major players include the Suica and Pasmo networks. Theoretically, virtual representations of the transit passes would be stored in the iPhone’s Wallet app. The card companies sell access to transit services both as-needed and via monthly packages, the site continues.