Payments in Japan

One of the advantages of living (spiritually, if not physically) in two countries is you get to see the future arriving early, in both directions. In the almost twenty years I’ve lived in Japan, the linguistic and geographic barriers to understanding daily life here have lessened (a topic worth an essay in itself), but they are still formidable. This makes an international mindset a surprisingly durable source of alpha, even in professional fields, even ones which are intensely globalized.

Credit cards

Payment method heterogeneity

Cash

Electronic money systems

App-based payments

Convenience store payments

Bank transfers

Ambitions thwarted