Visa Launches Apple Pay Support in Japan

[samwa3]

Ok I finally found an explanation to what actually changed with this announcement: https://atadistance.net/2021/05/12/the-visa-jp-apple-pay-announcement-and-digital-banking-wars/

Yeah all the different types of NFC sure make things confusing 😅 But would be nice if MacRumors writers also acknowledge that a bit more in their texts, even though it's not directly relevant for the US.

 

[MisterSavage]

I think I lucked out when I went there as a tourist. I heeded the warnings of it being mostly cash based and was surprised how many places I could use my card. But now that I think about it I was paying at probably more tourist friendly places.

 

[JKAussieSkater]

Not so much anymore. There was a large shift even before Covid times to use "e-wallets" / Suica etc. Dont have statistics, but for younger people (say 50 and under) it was certainly very common. During COVID, cashless/contactless has become a buzzword and apart from the older folks, I would guess we already are predominantly cashless.

I want to reinforce this comment. Since COVID-19, there has been a tremendous paradigm shift about the usage and handling of cash—at least in Tokyo. Everywhere offers cashless payments now. This "cash-society" trend is promptly and irreversibly dying.

Granted, there's something weird about Apple Pay in Japan… You can't use Apple Pay to pay for goods at the Official Apple store itself. At least, not international Apple Pay "cards". They only accept "QuickPay" or "iD" or maybe others at the Apple store, but not "Apple Pay".

 

[bwayne]

I think I lucked out when I went there as a tourist. I heeded the warnings of it being mostly cash based and was surprised how many places I could use my card. But now that I think about it I was paying at probably more tourist friendly places.

There are very few places in Japan these days which do not accept what most people on this forum would call a credit card - it’s been that way for a long time already. There’s also a myth perpetuated here that Japanese are primarily cash based consumers - that simply hasn’t been the case in probably 15-20 years. It’s a very evenly mixed bag. NFC payments have been around for a long long time as well. One thing that is clearly absent is written checks. Either personal or company, you very rarely find a check in Japan. It gets weird too - when I sold my first house, I walked out of Mitsubishi UFJ down the street to my other bank (SMBC) with a briefcase filled with cash - the equivalent of USD $1,150,000 in ¥. Then I promptly used it to payoff a bridge loan we had for our new place. Cash is still commonly used for large purchases. As an example the (now reduced daily withdrawal limit from an ATM is ¥500,000 (about US $4900). So yes Japanese walk around with a lot of cash. also credit cards are generally paid off at the end of the month in their entirety. so some cards, like American Express, really are not credit cards. They are what we used to call charge cards in America.

During the pandemic most people don’t use cash if they can get away with it. Actually I looked at my bank book and I’ve only withdrawn cash about 6 times from an ATM since Feb. 2020.

if I were a foreigner coming to visit Japan, I might use a card most of the time if I know that the CC issuer’s exchange rate is decent.

every time I go back to America and use cash it somehow feels like I’m doing a drug deal hahahaha.

anyway the wine is catching up ha ha …. onwards through the fog.

 

[redmounts]

I don't understand, I thought Visa is a form of electronic payment and so is Apple Pay. Why would I wan to use Visa inside Apple Pay? If Visa has NFC why would I want to use Apple Pay?

I get the Apple card has different offers and "privacy" but not Apple Pay and Visa



is there a reason for this?

The key word is “cryptography”. I stopped using my Visa card after I got an alert from my bank that a suspicious purchase raised red flags in the system. The bank then cancelled the cloned card and sent a new one. After that I only use Apple Pay, each time it generates a temporary crypto number that protects the card. If a shop doesn’t have a NFC reader, I don’t buy at the place. Security and privacy are king.

 

[MacBH928]

Cashless is more conveneint when paying and not have to deal with giving the change back, and for stores is easier to stop employee theft(or thieves theft) but none the less cash is king.

With cards you never know what goes on, someone stole your card, a bank glitch decided to refuse the payment, multiple authentication factors, for some reason the bank decided that your transaction looks suspicious so they decided to refuse the payment, electronic equipment failure. You don't have that with cash.

Cash works world wide, accepted every where, never says no and has no failures.

 

[MacBH928]

The key word is “cryptography”. I stopped using my Visa card after I got an alert from my bank that a suspicious purchase raised red flags in the system. The bank then cancelled the cloned card and sent a new one. After that I only use Apple Pay, each time it generates a temporary crypto number that protects the card. If a shop doesn’t have a NFC reader, I don’t buy at the place. Security and privacy are king.

I don't understand how can they clone your card, don't you have to input a PIN? Why is cryptography is NFC only? why can't be swipe only. In Japan do you have the chip system or the magnetic tape system?

 

[MacBH928]

Another popular NFC payment is via Suica/Pasmo. It's a rail/subway pass that you top-up, but it's one of the more popular NFC payment forms. https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/pass/suica.html. There are many credit cards with Visa NFC and Suica...

I may be wrong, but this form of payment is already standard in many countries in the world. Maybe not the US, but many countries have a similar idea. I mean the Suica.

 

[Zorori]

I may be wrong, but this form of payment is already standard in many countries in the world. Maybe not the US, but many countries have a similar idea. I mean the Suica.

Yeah many countries have it (like the Oyster card in the UK/London), but is in Japan it is commonly used for shopping, etc and integrated into credit cards. e.g. I can go to the Family Mart down the road and buy a with the card.

You can't do that with Oyster, so there's no need for the till to support multiple NFC systems.

Ah, this explains it properly: https://atadistance.net/2020/05/04/what-to-say-at-checkout-in-japan-with-apple-pay/

 

[lk400]

I want to reinforce this comment. Since COVID-19, there has been a tremendous paradigm shift about the usage and handling of cash—at least in Tokyo. Everywhere offers cashless payments now. This "cash-society" trend is promptly and irreversibly dying.

Granted, there's something weird about Apple Pay in Japan… You can't use Apple Pay to pay for goods at the Official Apple store itself. At least, not international Apple Pay "cards". They only accept "QuickPay" or "iD" or maybe others at the Apple store, but not "Apple Pay".

Indeed. They are feeding it through the fragmented existing networks of ID, quick pay and the others. Its really weird to not be able to use international cards even when the Apple Pay symbol is shown. Still, better than scanning a QR code I suppose!

 

[MisterSavage]

With cards you never know what goes on, someone stole your card, a bank glitch decided to refuse the payment, multiple authentication factors, for some reason the bank decided that your transaction looks suspicious so they decided to refuse the payment, electronic equipment failure. You don't have that with cash.

I almost never use cash and almost all of those things have never happened to me. I can count on one hand the number of times I couldn't use a credit card because of equipment failure.

 

[MacBH928]

I almost never use cash and almost all of those things have never happened to me. I can count on one hand the number of times I couldn't use a credit card because of equipment failure.

You have never traveled and started using your card and they blocked it for suspicious activity?
You never had your card declined? I had few times where I paid online and it still won't go through for whatever reason.

which card do you use?

 

[MisterSavage]

You have never traveled and started using your card and they blocked it for suspicious activity?
You never had your card declined? I had few times where I paid online and it still won't go through for whatever reason.

which card do you use?

No. I always alert my bank when I travel abroad, including Japan.

The only time I can remember a card being declined online is for an international purchase. Had to call the bank and get them to allow it.

I use a mixture of Chase and Amex cards. Some with annual fees and some without.

 

[MacBH928]

No. I always alert my bank when I travel abroad, including Japan.

The only time I can remember a card being declined online is for an international purchase. Had to call the bank and get them to allow it.

I use a mixture of Chase and Amex cards. Some with annual fees and some without.

out of topic, why would I want Amex? Visa/Master accepted worldwide and everywhere

 

[MisterSavage]

out of topic, why would I want Amex? Visa/Master accepted worldwide and everywhere

I used to have an Amex Platinum because they had a 100k point sign up bonus and I was using the lounges at layovers. Now I just have the no-fee Blue Cash, which I rarely use. For overseas travel I use Chase cards that don't have a foreign transaction fee.