FeliCa
Smart Cards & RFID · 7 specs
Direct Answer
FeliCa (Fast Electronic Card) is a contactless RFID smart card technology developed by Sony, standardized under JIS X 6319-4 and ISO/IEC 18092 (NFC Type 3). Operating at 13.56 MHz with 212/424 kbps Manchester encoding, it is engineered for ultra-fast sub-100ms transit gate transactions like Suica, Pasmo, and Octopus.
Source: Sony Corporation / JIS X 6319-4 / ISO/IEC 18092 · Last reviewed Aug 28, 2026
Specs
| Frequency Bands | 13.56 MHz |
| National / International Standard | JIS X 6319-4 / ISO/IEC 18092 (NFC-F) |
| NFC Forum Classification | Type 3 Tag |
| Data Transfer Rates | 212 and 424 kbps |
| Modulation Scheme | Manchester Coding (10% ASK) |
| Transaction Processing Speed | < 100 ms |
| Security Algorithms | AES-128 / DES / 3DES (FeliCa Standard) |
High-Speed Transit Optimization
Sony designed FeliCa in the late 1990s specifically to handle the extreme commuter density of Tokyo and Hong Kong railway systems (e.g. JR East Suica and Hong Kong Octopus). While standard ISO/IEC 14443 transactions typically require 200–300 ms, FeliCa processes mutual authentication, balance read, fare deduction, and memory write in under 100 ms (typically ~70 ms at the turnstile gate).
Mobile FeliCa (Osaifu-Keitai)
In 2004, Sony, NTT Docomo, and JR East introduced Mobile FeliCa (Osaifu-Keitai / 'Wallet Phone'). This embedded secure element standard enabled Japanese smartphones to act as transit cards, electronic money (Edy, Nanaco, WAON), and house keys over a decade before global Apple Pay and Google Wallet rollouts.