Comment by vkou

Given that my friends with iPhones were having more trouble than me with a visitor Suica, the phone advantage isn't a major one.

Also, non-Tokyo transit systems often support VISA tap and pay.

A visitor Suica card (that you can buy at the airport and refill with cash in seconds), a VISA, and cash (that you can get at any ATM with a debit card) is 100% sufficient for travel in Japan.

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The cash part of it is non-negotiable, though. Many merchants are cash-only. Presumably, handling large amounts of cash works fine in a society where the risk of getting robbed at gunpoint is actually zero [1], and where the police are ready to use very persuasive methods to maintain that 99% conviction rate.

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The real frustration is that buying rail tickets online inevitably triggers an extra layer of VISA verification (2fa code through SMS or email), which usually works fine, but has already shat the bed for me once, requiring a chat with my card's CS rep. Which fucking sucks when you don't have a phone # that works.

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[1] While the risk of some cutpurse ganking your wallet is so near-zero, it's a rounding error.