I am thinking to bring a canadian Pixel 7 to Japan switching from iPhone but i am confused about using contactless payments.
The help pages say that it should work in Japan using google wallet (launched last month?) and i contacted google store support and they told me that in order to use the canadian pixel phone contactless functions in Japan, i have to create a new profile/account for Japan and it should be fine.
But tbh, i am not convinced and wanted to ask anyone who has info on the subject. Did the situation change after google introduced google wallet in japan?
Thanks!
6 comments
AFAIK, mobile suica and osaifu keitai are not region locked. You can normally get those off Google play. If you can install those apps and no error comes up, then it should be good to go.
Normally contactless payment in Japan on Android require Osakfu-Keitai stack which is only available on phone sold in Japan.
I don’t know if there are exceptions now, but a quick google about Pixel 7 seems to state that it still only work on domestic Android.
In older days I had non Japan SKU Pixel 3XL and it doesn’t work with mobile Suica…
BTW if you don’t have the phone yet, why not just buy it when you come to Japan?
It will work on those terminals that accepts NFC, but mostly transit Terminals doesn’t supported NFC yet. If you don’t have OsaifuKetai app in your phone it wilk not work on most of the transit but it will work on some merchant/store’s that supported the NFC.
Edit some misspelled words.
As many said before you will be able to download the app from the store (need jp account) but your pixel will dosnt support Felica and it wont work. I had same probleme with my 4a(from EU)
There are several types of contactless payment that currently supported in Japan. I will talk three of them: iD, IC Card, and First is the infamous and ubiquitous iD. For this, you NEED Felica F that is only available with domestic Japan Android phones and devices. Second is IC Card (and it’s mobile version of it). Similar to iD , this too, need Felica F. Third is the EMV NFC (the ones in credit cards, e.g. Visa Paywave, Apple Pay and the likes). This doesn’t need Felica F AFAIK. Your Canada Pixel 7 MAY be able to use this in Japan, however places that accept this are limited AF.
Unlike Android using vendors, Apple uses Global Felica since few years ago (iPhone 8 if I remember correctly) This make their models support any JP contactless payment regardless where you buy your devices.