Apple Pay on its way to New Zealand, Japan and Russia; to get web version on Sept. 13

Beginning in October of this year, Apple's wireless payment service, Apple Pay, will be made available in Japan. The Japanese versions of the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2 will have FeliCa Type-F NFC chips on board, and will support many of the most popular credit and prepaid cards used in Japan.

FeliCa is a contactless smart card system, created by Sony for Japan, and is currently the most popular technology for wireless payments in the country, with more than 160 million daily transactions. Furthermore, FeliCa chips are also used in train passes issued by Japan Railways Group – consisting of the seven major passenger railway companies in the country – meaning that Apple Pay users will be able to use compatible devices at NFC reader-equipped turnstiles to pay their fares using money stored on the pass.

“Apple Pay will support many of the most popular Japanese credit and prepaid cards issued by AEON, Credit Saison, JCB, Mitsubishi UFJ Nicos, Orient Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Card, Toyota Finance, UC Cards and View Card, and carriers KDDI, NTT Docomo and Softbank, representing more than three-quarters of all credit card spending in Japan,” said Apple in an official statement.

Apple Pay is also expected to come to New Zealand this October, initially available to ANZ customers only, and to Russia some time this fall, though a concrete launch frame has not been announced.

The service will also get a web version, alongside the launch of iOS 10 on Sept. 13, which will be made available to Safari users, running macOS Sierra on any Mac introduced in or after 2012.