One of the reasons why we were pretty excited to hear about Apple Pay launching in Japan is due to the integration with FeliCa, an NFC standard that is unique to Japan and one that is also used by various public transport companies to facilitate payments for rides, such as the Suica card which is one of the available options to commuters in the country.By launching Apple Pay, it also meant that commuters could use their phones in place of Suica cards which could be more convenient. Unfortunately according to a report from Bloomberg, it seems that Apple Pay’s launch in the country is off to a less-than-stellar start with many users complaining that they are having a hard time trying to register their train passes with their iPhones.
Users claimed that they were having difficulty trying to connect to to Mobile Suica system, but it seems that after a couple of hours, things went back to normal. However it seems that this did not leave a good impression with users, many of whom have taken to Twitter to publicly voice their frustration.
However there are some who are seeing a positive side to this little hiccup. According to Eiichiro Yanagawa, a senior analyst for consulting firm Celent, “It’s a shame that systems went down, but it shows just how much user interest there is. They’ll be able to learn from today’s experience to improve services for the future. We can probably take this as a positive sign.”