6 ms·

My personal experience has only been from the tourism side with one concrete example being digital payments outside of PayPay. It's much better post COVID but e

by Loocid 3y ago

My personal experience has only been from the tourism side with one concrete example being digital payments outside of PayPay. It's much better post COVID but even on my most recent trip from a couple of months ago if you want pay by card, the vast majority of the time you're signing with pen and paper. Rarely did they offer pin or tap which is common elsewhere. Anecdotally I only know stories from people that I know personally that live there and through the internet. Eg PauloInTokyo does good "day in the life" videos. Off the top of my head I believe the Pachinko episode illustrates a variety of old school manual processes that have stuck around (pen and paper shift logs etc). I've also heard opening even a simple bank account is quite the pain.

fomine3 3y ago
In my experience with Japan local IC/NFC credit card, I've never signed when I use CC in recent 5 years but PIN is sometimes needed. Do you use magnetic stripe CC?
- Loocid 3y ago
  >Do you use magnetic stripe CC. All my cards have an IC, however they were Australian cards. Perhaps it's an additional step for foreign credit/debit cards?
  - fomine3 3y ago
    I don't know much about CC, but possibly difference of PIN method can be a reason. Possibly like merchant only support offline PIN vs your card only support online PIN?
  - johnwalkr 3y ago
    Must be a quirk for those cards in Japan. I've had no problems using my Canadian cards in Japan, and don't recall ever having to sign. In terms of banking and payments, it has improved a lot over the years: ATMs are mostly 24/7, or at least you can always find one, banks don't shut down over holiday weeks anymore (some do occasionally but it's a one-time thing for big upgrades for interoperability), and you can use credit cards and tap-to-pay almost everywhere. My only complaint is the sheer number of digital payment options. You end up with using at least 1-2 on top of your credit card because it's tied to some other service.

by Loocid 3y ago

fomine3 3y ago

In my experience with Japan local IC/NFC credit card, I've never signed when I use CC in recent 5 years but PIN is sometimes needed. Do you use magnetic stripe CC?

Loocid 3y ago
>Do you use magnetic stripe CC. All my cards have an IC, however they were Australian cards. Perhaps it's an additional step for foreign credit/debit cards?
- fomine3 3y ago
  I don't know much about CC, but possibly difference of PIN method can be a reason. Possibly like merchant only support offline PIN vs your card only support online PIN?
- johnwalkr 3y ago
  Must be a quirk for those cards in Japan. I've had no problems using my Canadian cards in Japan, and don't recall ever having to sign. In terms of banking and payments, it has improved a lot over the years: ATMs are mostly 24/7, or at least you can always find one, banks don't shut down over holiday weeks anymore (some do occasionally but it's a one-time thing for big upgrades for interoperability), and you can use credit cards and tap-to-pay almost everywhere. My only complaint is the sheer number of digital payment options. You end up with using at least 1-2 on top of your credit card because it's tied to some other service.