If you have ever visited Japan and tried tapping your Android phone to pay for a train ride, you already know the problem. It does not work. Your phone handles contactless payments everywhere else without issue, but Japan runs on FeliCa, a different standard entirely, and most Android devices sold outside Japan simply do not support it. iPhones do. That gap has existed for years, and Samsung may be the first to close it.
According to Japanese outlet No-Genkin, Samsung is working with East Japan Railway Company (JR East) to bring FeliCa compatibility to globally sold Galaxy smartphones starting in 2027. The Galaxy S27 series is expected to be among the first devices to support it. JR East is also working to integrate Samsung Pay into its Mobile Suica and Welcome Suica Mobile apps, so international users could top up transit balances and buy passes directly through Samsung’s payment system.
Understanding why this has taken so long requires a quick look at what FeliCa actually is. Developed by Sony, it is technically classified as NFC-F under international standards, separate from the NFC Type A that powers most global contactless payments. The key difference is architectural: NFC Type A relies on cloud-based tokenized transactions, while FeliCa stores value directly on a secure chip, allowing offline validation. That design demands specific hardware that most globally sold Android phones have never included, likely due to cost and licensing considerations.
Android phones sold within Japan already support FeliCa. The rest of the world’s Android users have been locked out.
Whether other Android manufacturers follow Samsung here is an open question. FeliCa matters enormously in Japan but serves a relatively small slice of the global user base. Samsung’s move makes sense given its scale and its ambitions in the Japanese market, but it is not obvious that brands with thinner margins will rush to add the hardware.
For frequent travelers to Japan, though, this would genuinely change how useful their phone is the moment they land.
Via – Android Authority
