The predilection for cash is more cultural than technological I think - they've had NFC payments w Suica cards for decades. I don't think their PCs are particu

The predilection for cash is more cultural than technological I think - they've had NFC payments w Suica cards for decades. I don't think their PCs are particularly backwards either - they have some ultrabooks that never make their way to the US that are pretty sexy. Component pricing is a bit more expensive than the US (about 30% even with Yen devaluation) but you can say the same for just about anywhere in the world (heck, I'm in TW right now and even the best pricing is at parity w US pricing, on average it's 20% more even though half the brands are HQ'd here). For a time last year due to the Yen devaluation, prices for Apple products was ~15% cheaper than stateside.