Most people who engage in commercial transactions in Japan will agree that the saying “genkin banno”—cash is king—still applies. Use of personal cheques is a rarity, while credit cards and other money substitutes, which have made gains over the past several decades, still tend to be utilised considerably less than in other advanced economies.
But this may be changing. An online survey of 1,676 adults conducted by the Asahi Shimbun vernacular newspaper (21 April) reveals that the ratio of respondents preferring cash to cashless was split precisely down the middle. The former gave such explanations for favouring cash as “being accepted anywhere”, “keeping one more aware of the value of goods and services”, and “making one less concerned about overspending” (as opposed to when using e-money or credit cards).
Meanwhile, those preferring to eschew cash gave as their reasons that they liked being credited with shopping points, don’t need to go to a bank to get money, and find it troublesome to walk around carrying large sums of money.
The most popular cash substitutes mentioned (with multiple replies given) were credit cards (827 people), prepaid cards such as Suica and PASMO issued by railways (661), WAON issued by the AEON retail chain (313), other types of prepaid cards (150), Rakuten Edy (132), debit cards (77), and smartphones (27).
Despite the low ranking of smartphones, a front-page story of the Nikkei Marketing Journal of 23 April forecasts that smartphones soon will be used instead of cash.
While just 20% of consumers used cash substitutes in 2011, the percentage has been rising sharply since. Surveys by ePayments Laboratory Inc. and other organisations are projecting it will approach 40% by 2025.
As a walletless society emerges, new ways to spend money will inevitably be developed. A smartphone app now facilitates splitting the restaurant tab after lunch for instance. When an establishment called Café de K opened for business last November in Sapporo, it posted a sign at the entrance stating, “Cash not accepted.” Payment there can be made only using e-money or a credit card, meaning a walletful of cash will be all but useless.
A survey conducted in 2017 by Dentsu Inc., Japan’s largest advertising agency, found that 78.3% of respondents agreed that they preferred cashless transactions. According to another survey, 53.8% of teen respondents said they prefer making cashless payments—1.5 times more than the respondents in their 20s.