Penguin-less Suica to take on PayPay in payments with QR codes and higher limits

The Suica smartphone app is upping its payments game by adding features and increasing limits so that the app, which is at its core a bus and train electronic-ticketing system, can compete against the likes of PayPay and other large providers.The changes come as part of a broad rethink of the product, the most noted element so far being the retirement of the Suica penguin mascot in the next fiscal year, which begins April 1, 2026.“We’re thinking that we’d like our customers to be involved in some form with the process of creating a new character,” East Japan Railway CEO Yoichi Kise said during a news conference on Tuesday.