Neotokyo: Oscar Yasser Noriega’s Blog (Akira)

Some days ago I had a meeting with Joi Ito at his Shibuya office.

Before going to the meeting, I stopped by at my house to drop some stuff and pick some of my magazines. I headed down to the train station and used my Mobile Suica Software on my cellphone to pay for my train ticket as usual. After entering the gate, I went to the train line and while I was waiting there I realized that I didn’t had my wallet with me. I kinda freaked out and I went back to the ticket gate, then, I asked the guy  if someone returned  my wallet to him (lost and found). At that point, I knew that I had my wallet with me after I left my house, and I was 100% sure that I lost it while entering to the train station. They guy there said something like, “I don’t have any items from today, perhaps you forgot it in your house?”. I was running late for my meeting and I didn’t had time to go back to my house, so basically I just said “screw it, I will survive with my cellphone”. “Your cellphone?” -you may ask surprised-, Yes, you can survive with a phone in Japan without any problem. 

Nowadays, most of the Japanese cellphones have a built-in RFID chip that you can use for many applications. Recently, most of the phones in Japan adopted NTT Docomo’s Osaifu-Keitai standard, which is also compatible with a bunch of apps you can download for free to convert your phone into a swiss army knife. The apps available -to name a few-, ranges from electronic tickets for airplanes, trains or buses. You can also have “electronic money” linked to a credit card or point cards from department stores -which is very convenient because you stop carrying around dozens of plastic cards-. 

Photo by: Hector Garcia (Kirai)

So the meeting went great, and throughout the day I was able to buy food, drinks, train tickets and even some cables I needed for my house in Yodobashi Camera. All with my phone. 

Many countries in the world talk about the future and their plans to create “e-money” standards soon, while in Japan you can actually live in the future. Is this technology available in your country?.

Well, you might say “Too bad you are basically screwed if you loose your phone”, well, not at all. Some phones even have the option to disable all RFID applications by just sending an email to it when you loose it. That’s smart. 

By the way, thanks to UnGatoNipon for helping me configure my cellphone to use the Mobile Suica on it. You saved my ass buddie!