Japan is often a puzzling place, presenting two conflicting images at the same time. It seems to be very liberal sexually, with ecchi anime broadcast on late-night TV and even allowing light nudity to be shown on TV…yet the details in Japanese porn is covered with a mosaic by law. They’re considered a technical powerhouse around the world, yet J-List still gets faxes from our distributors every night, letting us know what products to post on the site tomorrow.
And compared to other Asian nations, Japan seems addicted to using cash for making purchases. Supposedly the first thing every visitor from China or South Korea does when they arrive in Japan is purchasing a wallet, which they no longer bother owning, as use of cash is such a rare thing back home. And yet, Japan is also currently undergoing massive competition as various companies duke it out to try to get people locked into their contactless payment system, which I call Japan’s Cashless Payment Wars.
Every time you visit a cash register preparing to make a payment, you encounter dozens of company logos letting you know that you can pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay, Rakuten Pay, Origami Pay, D-Barai (which sounds like a good name for a yaoi manga imprint to me), pring, merPay (by Mercari), and of course, LINE Pay, since everyone in Japan uses that popular chat app.
https://twitter.com/JListPeter/status/1170215009827217410
Everyone, it seems, is getting into the payments game. Even Pixiv, the popular fanart hosting site, has one.
Competition to get people to sign up for this service or that naturally has companies making ridiculous offers, lead by the new PayPay, one of the brainchild of Softbank and Yahoo founder Masayoshi Son, which often offers 20% back in points when you make a purchase. If you’ve been following the drama around WeWork’s failed IPO and subsequent funding crisis. “Masa-san” is the primary investor behind that company, too. He’s one of my favorite Japanese businessmen, and I hope it all works out for him.
The idea behind the cashless payment wars is that, since currently only 20% of purchases are made with contactless payments, compared with nearly 90% in South Korea, it’s a huge potential market for whatever company that can move to the head of the pack. And it certainly has been convenient. My personal method of payment is good old Suica, the unified card for riding the train and maybe purchases almost anywhere, and I can even use it on my Apple Watch.
The explosion in alternate ways to pay for the things you want has to lead to some interesting innovations, like super-sexy payment cards for artist and creator community Fantia, which is something like Patreon. Fans can support their favorite creators and carry around sexy payment cards like this which are tied to the platform, which is a win in my book.
What do you think of Japan’s cashless payment battleground? Is the use of cash common, or have you switched to something more modern? Let us know on Twitter!
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