Searchable encryption allows us to perform a keyword search over encrypted data. However, we cannot efficiently perform some complex search (e.g., a wildcard search) with traditional searchable encryption schemes because they can deal with only equality matches. Our symmetric searchable encryption can deal with partial matches. This allows us to efficiently perform a wildcard search, partial match search, and so on. We also examine the feasibility of our scheme by experiments on a smartphone and tablet, and confirm our scheme can be used in these environments. Availability on portable devices will offer high convenience. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.