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i imagine not being reliant on american payment networks for your nation's retail economy has lit a fire under their asses.
by parl_match 1mo ago
i imagine not being reliant on american payment networks for your nation's retail economy has lit a fire under their asses.
- pjc50 1mo agoHardly, the country is still heavily cash-using, and where transitioning to electronic payments the local PayPay system seems to be popular. Suica payments for stores are basically only for dense areas of Tokyo.
- parl_match 1mo agoHardly? Credit cards passed cash for retail purchases last year. They're neck and neck. If you break down by age demographic, you'll probably guess who's using what. And the ones using cash are quickly disappearing. And let's say it wasn't, and if cash was still king: 10% of Japan's payments infra being weaponized during tariff negotiations would still be a huge dent to their economy. The country had been migrating over heavily, but Trump 2 actions put the brakes on a lot of EMV rollout. PayPay is an evolution/merge of Line Pay (long story), which struggled to capture market share in Japan past peer-to-peer payments, due to a bunch of factors. You'll see it in stores, of course, but it's adoption isn't amazing (not bad, just not amazing). Suica benefits from FeliCa/NFC-F lock-in, and considerable existing deployment, plus integration with the rail network. Almost everyone in Japan has a FeliCa/NFC-F device with currency loaded. FWIW I am an American, but I am working on payments infrastructure and billing for a American owned subsidiary of a Japanese corporation. This happens to be a subject that I am wading into on a daily basis, at least from a technical side. Oh, and you might be interested to hear what's happening in the UK with OysterCard. They recently finished their EMV rollout and then paused all OysterCard sunset timelines. I wonder why.