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.