Apple Pay Express Transit comes to Japanese payment system PASMO

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Apple watch Apple Pay (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Japanese transport system PASMO now supports Apple Pay.
  • It also supports the more advanced Express Transit, too.
  • People can make payments without needing their devices to be powered on. No authentication is needed, either.

Apple Pay Express Transit is now supported by Japenese smart payment system PASMO according to an announcement that was picked up by the folk at MacRumors.

Now, for the first time, people using the payment system can use their iPhone and Apple Watch to make contactless payments. The addition of Express Transit is the icing on the cake, with no authentication required for the payment to be made. It also ensures payments can be made even when a device's battery is depleted, too.

PASMO is apparently interoperable with Suica, a similar transit system in the region that has already supported both of Apple's payment systems for a number of years.

PASMO is similar to and interoperable with Suica, a transit system that has been compatible with Apple Pay and Express Transit mode for several years. PASMO is accepted on a number of train lines and bus lines in numerous areas of Japan, although it is most prevalent in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Good to know!

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.