Apple to adopt new tap-to-pay standard for Japan

Apple is planning to adopt a new tap-to-pay standard that will be integrated into future iPhones specifically for customers in Japan, according to a new report. The FeliCa standard, originally developed by Sony, will allow users to store public bus and train passes in Apple Wallet.

The iPhone already allows us to pay for goods and store digital membership cards and tickets, but the only contactless standard it currently supports is NFC. This is widely supported throughout the U.S., Europe, and Australia, but FeliCa is more common in Japan.

According to the Bank of Japan, there are more than 1.9 million FeliCa payment terminals throughout the country, which handled a whopping 4.6 trillion yen (approx. $46 billion) in transactions last year. In comparison, there are 1.3 million NFC terminals in the U.S.

FeliCa is faster than Apple Pay, too. While the latter can take a couple of seconds to communicate with a server and gain approval from your bank, a FeliCa transaction can be processed in just 0.1 seconds, according to Sony.

“Apple intends to work with multiple transit card providers,” reports Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with its plan. “Theoretically, virtual representations of the transit passes would be stored in the iPhone’s Wallet application.”

It’s thought Apple is planning to put FeliCa chips in its next iPhone, which will make its official debut next month. However, one source warns that they could be held back until 2017 if discussions with Japan-based payment networks aren’t successful.

Killian Bell

Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.