Commuters pass through a ticket gate at Shibuya Station in Tokyo, Aug. 23, 2023. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

East Japan Railway Company, or JR East, is planning to start issuing prepaid, rechargeable smart cards in the Tokyo metropolitan area again this fall after clearing semiconductor supply problems.

The contactless Suica cards are the most popular way for residents, visitors and the U.S. military to pay train and bus fares. They are also accepted by participating retailers and station vending machines and are good across the country.

JR East stopped issuing the nonpersonalized cards on June 8, 2023, due to a worldwide semiconductor shortage, the company said at the time. It halted new personalized cards — emblazoned with the user’s name — two months later.

The company plans to resume selling registered cards in the fall, a JR East spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone Friday.

“We were able to secure a certain amount of chips,” he said.

Dates they are available will be announced after preparations are complete, the spokesman said. Resumption dates for nonregistered cards have not been decided yet.

Virtual cards for Apple Pay and other electronic payment systems were still available after JR East halted new Suica sales.

Virtual cards are also available on the Pasmo and Suica apps, which are available only in Japanese. They can’t be recharged with non-Japanese credit cards.

Physical cards for children, disabled people, commuter passes and replacements for lost or damaged cards remained available.

While ordinary Suica cards were unavailable, Welcome Suica IC cards, valid for 28 days for foreigners visiting Japan, were issued in limited quantities at Narita and Haneda international airports.

After Suica and Pasmo cards became largely unavailable, Tokyu Corp. installed machines that accepted credit cards rather than the usual prepaid passes at stations along the Denentoshi Line between Shibuya in central Tokyo and Yamato in Kanagawa prefecture.