The Suica smartphone app is upping its payments game by adding features and increasing limits so that the app, which is at its core a bus and train electronic-ticketing system, can compete against the likes of PayPay and other large providers.
The changes come as part of a broad rethink of the product, the most noted element so far being the retirement of the Suica penguin mascot in the next fiscal year, which begins April 1, 2026.
¡°We¡¯re thinking that we¡¯d like our customers to be involved in some form with the process of creating a new character,¡± East Japan Railway CEO Yoichi Kise said during a news conference on Tuesday.
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