alt Hacker NewsYou raise an interesting point here. To use digital Suica/PASMO/whatever in Japan, your mobile phone needs to have NFC hardware called (Sony) "FeliCa (Osaifu-Keitai)". Few Android phones sold outside of Japan have this hardware. However, Apple is a bit special -- I think all modern iPhones sold globally support it. (Please correct me if wrong.)
Google also tells me:
> Samsung confirmed it's working with JR East to bring Suica and FeliCa support to Galaxy phones sold outside Japan starting in 2027.
As far as I'm aware, at least some of the Pixels sold outside Japan have actually had the same hardware for several generations, it's just disabled in software due to licensing