Japan's had a universal tap-to-pay solution for years now, but now that the rest of the world is catching up, the new Type A and Type B near-field communication standards don't play nice with Japan's existing ones. Three wireless carriers formed the Japan Mobile NFC Consortium to deal with the issue, but now smart card provider FeliCa Networks is getting the infrastructure laid out, partnering with Samsung to develop a universal NFC controller and secure application module, and with NXP to build a global NFC radio. Theoretically, once the technology and agreements are all in place someday, you could tap to pay with your smartphone (or charge up your laptop battery) anywhere in the world. According to their respective press releases (find them at our source links) these two pieces of the puzzle should be ready sometime in 2013.