Suica

Suica (スイカ Suika^?) is a rechargeable contactless smart card used as a fare card on train lines in Japan.

Launched November 2001.

The card is also increasingly being accepted as a form of electronic money for purchases at stores and kiosks, especially within train stations.

Suica stands for "Super Urban Intelligent Card", and the pronunciation is also a pun on the Japanese word for watermelon, "suika". In the logo, the "ic" is highlighted, as the initials stand for integrated circuit, the technology inside the smart card, in common Japanese usage. An additional meaning comes from the expression "sui sui", meaning "smooth" and an abbreviation for "card", "ka", intended to highlight the smooth simplicity of using the card compared with traditional train tickets.