alt Hacker NewsThis will remain the case as long as Sony continues to charge Android manufacturers heavy licensing fees for the FeliCa chip needed for Suica/Pasmo.
However, major Japanese cities are increasingly allowing credit card tap to pay for transport, Osaka Metro is already 100% on board and Tokyo has started trials. There's a long tail of minor companies that will likely take forever though.
Tokyo Metro, Toei, Keikyu, and others have rolled it out across a significant chunk of their lines at this point.
You can get to a significant portion of the network... So long as you don't have to take a JR train.
My only complaints about Contactless Cards from Visa/Mastercard/etc. Is that they're significantly slower than FeliCa. I can sprint through a gate with my Pasmo; I have to stop with my Visa.
For Visa, the closest transaction processing happens in Colorado. So they're slooooooow.
Disclaimer: Fmr Visa, current PayPay employee. I hate payments.