From the J–Coin Pay to the Suica app: Mizuho and JR East to run proof–of–concept trial for adding money to Suica with the digital currency J–Coin Pay

Linking bank digital currency platform with Suica

Mizuho Bank, Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda–ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Koji Fujiwara), a core subsidiary of Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda–ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Tatsufumi Sakai), and the East Japan Railway Company (Headquarters: Shibuya–ku, Tokyo; President: Yuji Fukasawa; "JR East") have agreed to conduct a proof–of–concept trial for using J–Coin Pay, Mizuho Bank's digital currency platform, to add money to Suica balances in JR East's Suica app.¹

1. Proof–of–concept trial outline

・Planned start:

October 2019

・Details:

Users will be able to add money to their Suica balance in the Suica app from within the J–Coin Pay app without incurring any service charges.

・Participants:

J–Coin Pay personnel and JR East personnel²

2. Goal

In October 2006, Mizuho Bank and JR East together launched a service to allow users to add money to their Mobile Suica cards directly from their Mizuho Bank accounts. In August 2018, we furthered our collaboration to begin providing the Mizuho Suica service, which allows users to create a virtual Suica card and add money to its balance entirely within the Mizuho Wallet app, with no need for a physical card.

With the upcoming proof–of–concept trial, customers who hold accounts at any of the 60 financial institutions participating in J–Coin Pay will be able to add money to their Suica balances in the Suica app using J–Coin Pay and without paying any service charges. Suica is accepted on public transportation such as trains and buses and at nearly 600,000 merchants around Japan.

Enabling users to add money to their Suica balances in the Suica app with J–Coin Pay will improve the convenience of using the digital currency platform in a variety of situations and the convenience of refilling one's Suica balance.

Outline

Reference: J–Coin Pay service outline

J–Coin Pay allows customers to make payments, send and receive transfers, and perform a range of other financial transactions all on their smartphones. Customers are also able to use the smartphone app to move funds between their J–Coin Pay accounts and their deposit accounts at financial institutions for free, anytime and anywhere.

J–Coin Pay app

• 1The Suica app is an app for using JR East's Suica service with Apple Pay.
• 2Only available on iPhone.
• 3"QR code" is a registered trademark of Denso Wave Incorporated.

Financial institutions participating or planning to participate in J–Coin Pay
(by region and bank code)