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Cashless Society

I stayed in the Seattle area during the holiday season.  American people are going more and more cashless using the debit card or the credit card.  I see people using cash only at limited occasions.  Japan is also going cashless, but the evolutional process is different from the United States.

Japan's cashless system is going more prepaid way.  There are many types of e-cashes which can be used at many restaurants, convenience stores, or small shops in the train stations.  The e-cash devices are integrated into cell-phones, so there is no need to carry additional card.  E-cash on cell-phones can be used to ride trains as well.

The big benefit of Japan's prepaid type system is anonymousness.  Unlike the credit card or the debit card, people can secretly make payment using the prepaid type system.  The people in the United States have been using personal cheques, so they are already accustomed to make their payments available to the banks or the credit card companies.  Japanese people are still trying to keep their purchases secret, and this is one of the reasons people like to use prepaid type e-cash rather than using the credit card or the debit card.

Vending machines accept e-cash

Many vending machines in Japan (especially in Tokyo) now accept e-cash for payment. There is no need to prepare coins before buying. However, there are several different types of e-cash and they are not compatible, so you would need to have 3 or 4 e-cash cards if you don't want to carry coins at all. Convenient e-cashes are Suica/Pasmo run by train companies, Nanako, iD by NTT Docomo, and Edy.

Smartphone is finally starting up in Japan

Driven by introduction of iPhone in Japan, the smartphone will become a boom in Japan. Cell-phones in Japan are recognized by their high-tech functions, but those functions are not really acceptable for the business use. Following the introcution of iPhone, there are some new smart phones introduced in Japan in the past several weeks.