-
Important news
-
News
-
Shenzhen
-
China
-
World
-
Opinion
-
Sports
-
Kaleidoscope
-
Photo Highlights
-
Business
-
Markets
-
Business/Markets
-
World Economy
-
Speak Shenzhen
-
Leisure Highlights
-
Culture
-
Travel
-
Entertainment
-
Digital Paper
-
In depth
-
Weekend
-
Lifestyle
-
Diversions
-
Movies
-
Hotels
-
Special Report
-
Yes Teens
-
News Picks
-
Tech and Science
-
Glamour
-
Campus
-
Budding Writers
-
Fun
-
Futian Today
-
Advertorial
-
CHTF Special
-
FOCUS
-
Guide
-
Nanshan
-
Hit Bravo
-
People
-
Person of the week
-
Majors Forum
-
Shopping
-
Investment
-
Tech and Vogue
-
Junior Journalist Program
-
Currency Focus
-
Food Drink
-
Restaurants
-
Yearend Review
-
QINGDAO TODAY
在线翻译:
szdaily -> World Economy -> 
Hoping to boost spending, Japan sells shoppers on cashless purchases
    2019-07-04  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

WHEN the baseball season kicked off in Japan this spring, fans of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles were faced with an inconvenience they’d never encountered before: the food and drinks stalls did not accept cash.

The team’s owner, Internet commerce firm Rakuten Inc., was trying to promote its QR code mobile payment system. But the marketing ploy quickly turned out to be much more than that.

In April and May, food, beverage and merchandise sales at the Eagles’ stadium in the northeastern city of Sendai rose 20 percent year on year, in part because taking cash out of the equation changed spending habits.

“We consider it to be a success story,” said Hayato Morofushi, marketing manager for Rakuten’s mobile payments. “Using QR codes for payments has only just started in Japan, so we don’t expect everyone to jump on the bandwagon. As we get more success stories, this will win more people over.”

Experts say that when queues move faster, more people join. Customers don’t see cash leaving their wallets and focus on the satisfaction of a purchase, so they spend more.

That psychology could be crucial for Japan’s economy, locked for decades in a deflationary mindset, where consumers delay spending in hopes of stable or lower prices.

A scheduled increase in the sales tax to 10 percent from 8 percent in October could hurt spending. Aware of that risk, the government is betting big on mobile payments, an industry only just taking root in Japan.

As soon as the tax increase kicks in, the government will offer points redeemable for future discounts to shoppers who use QR codes and other cashless payments for nine months.

The project has a six-month budget of 280 billion yen (US$2.6 billion).

“If we change how we pay, we can change society as a whole,” said Masamichi Ito, director of the Japanese Economy Ministry’s cashless promotion office, set up in October with the goal of doubling cashless transactions to 120 trillion yen by 2025.

Cash settles 80 percent of Japan’s transactions, with the rest shared among credit cards, mobile and pre-paid swipe cards. That is the highest cash usage rate in the developed world after Germany.

Low crime rates — Japanese are comfortable carrying large amounts of cash — and an ageing population seen as the main obstacles for deeper adoption.

In India and China, two of the world’s most voracious spenders, mobile payments are 30-35 percent of transactions.

On average, cashless payments increase per-customer sales by 1.6 percent, according to the Nomura Research Institute (NRI). Domestic consumption in Japan has grown an average of 0.5 percent each year in the past six years.

The government says going cashless could alleviate other major economic headaches, such as a labor shortage and the falling profitability of banks, simply by virtue of being more efficient.

Cashiers spend on average more than two hours a day managing cash, while Japanese banks spend around 1 trillion yen a year on their ATM network and physically moving cash, NRI says.

Tourism spending, especially from China, has been one of the few economic bright spots in Japan, and Chinese tourists use the mobile payment system AliPay at over 300,000 Japanese merchants.

Some duty-free counters at big department stores deposit tax refunds directly into AliPay accounts. The app uses targeted advertisements to help users find what they want to buy and recommends related products nearby. When users return to China, they get a recommendation to buy similar Japanese goods online. (SD-Agencies)

深圳报业集团版权所有, 未经授权禁止复制; Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved.
Shenzhen Daily E-mail:szdaily@szszd.com.cn