Here is how to add an unregistered Suica card to your iPhone. Keep in mind that only iPhones 8 and newer have the chip that allow you to use your phone. I think Japanese iPhone 7’s have it as well. Mind you that this post is an imperfect guide. I don’t read Japanese fluently.

We found that using the NFC chip on our phones to be way more convenient than carrying around a physical metro card. It’s one less thing to have to worry about losing and it’s way easier to recharge it using Apple Pay (vs feeding yen into a machine).

There’s an English app that allows you to add a card without the need to change your phone’s region to Japan, but it doesn’t allow you to view the full virtual card number on your phone. It’s not really that big of a deal for normal metro use but if you need to register your card for any reason, the full number will be required to my understanding.Set your phone’s region to Japan.

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