Apple Pay to Launch in Japan With iPhone 7

TOKYO—Apple Inc. said its new iPhone and Apple Watch Series 2 will carry Sony Corp.'s FeliCa chips in Japan, enabling mobile payments with the devices.

Apple introduced its Apple Pay service in the U.S. in 2014, allowing users to make payments with their phones. It has gradually expanded the service to other countries.

Adapting Apple Pay for Japan has taken some time because the most commonly used technology differs from the U.S. Sony's FeliCa has been used for many electronic-money systems in Japan including one adopted by NTT DoCoMo Inc., a major mobile-phone carrier.

DoCoMo already offers phones with e-money called iD, allowing users to tap their phones on a reader next to cash registers and make payments at nearly 650,000 stores in Japan including convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and drugstores. DoCoMo said Thursday the iD service will be available on the new Apple devices.

Customers can hold their iPhone over an iD reader with their finger on the phone's touch ID or double-click Apple Watch's side button to make payments, DoCoMo said.

The lack of a payment function on iPhones in Japan until now had kept Apple behind competitors in the country, one of its most important markets.

FeliCa chips are also used in train passes issued by East Japan Railway Co. Train riders can tap the pass, called Suica, on a reader in station turnstiles to pay their fare using money stored on the pass. The same pass can be used on buses and in 360,000 stores, according to the railway.

Tetsuro Tomita, president of East Japan Railway, said customers have been asking to have the Suica function embedded in their iPhones. "For iPhone 7, we redesigned an entirely new experience from the ground up so our customers can enjoy the ease and security of using Apple Pay while commuting, in our app and in stores with Suica," he said in a statement.

According to Apple, FeliCa is used for more than 160 million transactions a day across Japan. Some ¥ 421 billion ($4.14 billion) in transactions in Japan in June used electronic money, not counting train fares, according to the Bank of Japan.

Apple also said its Maps app in its iOS 10 operating system coming in October would have more information for commuters in Japan including fares. Apple Pay will be accepted anywhere Suica is available, according to the company.

Write to Megumi Fujikawa at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 08, 2016 01:15 ET (05:15 GMT)

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