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Japan eyes e-money salary payments

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The Tokyo metropolitan government and others have requested the introduction of e-money for salary payments, saying there is already high demand.

Demand by who? Not only have I never heard anyone suggest this option, I'd imagine that if I asked all the Japanese people I know what they thought about this proposal, every single one would be against it.

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The whole reason for this is because foreigners cannot easily open bank accounts - therefore they cannot receive direct deposits for their salaries. I remember when i first came here i was turned down by a few banks since i hadnt lived here for 6 months or more.

I went to shinsei bank who were very helpful and gave me an account and a card the same day. Now i am glad i went with them, and laugh at all the fools lining up for the ATM on friday afternoons so they wont be forced to pay ATM fees on weekends.

Perhaps the government should make it a little easier to open bank accounts rather than paying these people in Mobile Suica payments?

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Give up your cash, give up your last vestige of freedom.

when you go 100% cashless they’ve got you and will start lopping zeroes off your account balance at will while simultaneoulsly raising prices on everything around you.

It is a governments duty to print and provide cash for its citizenry. If they want to save the expenses of printing they should cut some real waste in their bureacracy, not my cash!

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I don't understand this. If the people I do work for put money into my bank account (a bank transfer) the money is there for me to do with as I will; charge a prepaid card, pay my credit card bill, transfer to another account (mine or someone else's), syphon off into a savings account, draw out cash. The amount that goes where differs month to month. Why would I want someone else deciding how much of my money goes where? Why would I welcome my money being straitjacketed in such a way?

The move is being sought as Japan is set to open up in April to more foreign blue-collar workers, who are expected to face hurdles in opening bank accounts as they lack domestic assets and transaction histories.

Then work on laws to make it easier for them, not more difficult for the rest of us. Let the visa include, say, authorisation to open a bank account and have a credit card/debit card.

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I keep my cash in a safe, I would never put money in a bank.

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This must be a joke. What century are these people living in ???.

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Currently, workers in Japan largely receive salaries in cash or through bank transfers.

Any workers still being paid in cash are working for a company that lives in the dark ages!

Bank transfers are already a form of "cashless" payment, it's an electronic transaction that everyone and their mother probably knows about. Don't understand why it is being included as a "cash" payment.

The other forms of payment being described here are basically the same thing, electronic transfers of money from one account to another, and there is nothing to stop the recipient from making a "cash" withdraw either, so why are bank transfers being considered differently?

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 why are bank transfers being considered differently?

Because dinosaurs make policy. Tech is not their lingo.

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The are really off point with this scheme. Even if firms do this, cash has to be used to pay bills and to do shopping. All they need do is introduce the direct debit system that other countries have been using for over 30 years. I don’t think there is a single shop, pub or taxi in Australia that does not have a direct debit machine. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised by another daft idea in Japanese banking, after all, it’s only a little over ten years ago that ATM withdrawals were available after 6pm and on Sundays.

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The move is being sought as Japan is set to open up in April to more foreign blue-collar workers, who are expected to face hurdles in opening bank accounts as they lack domestic assets and transaction histories.

 lack domestic assets and transaction histories? Oh please! Just say it as it is. They face outright discrimination.

In addition to e-money that can be added to IC cards and smartphones, deposits to prepaid cards and smartphone apps will be considered. Cryptocurrencies, that tend to be volatile, will likely be excluded.

Yeah... That's considering that they CAN get a smartphone. The companies here will not give you a 2 year contract on a smartphone if you have less than 2 years on your visa.

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I went to shinsei bank who were very helpful and gave me an account and a card the same day. Now i am glad i went with them, and laugh at all the fools lining up for the ATM on friday afternoons so they wont be forced to pay ATM fees on weekends.

And I'm sure they laughed back just as hard when the whole Shinsei system shut down for 6 days at the end of last year.

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@Cleo - “Why would I want someone else deciding how much of my money goes where? Why would I welcome my money being straitjacketed in such a way?”

You wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. But this is Japan, and the more control government and authority has over people the better. They want to reduce the freedoms of their citizens rather than improve them.

This ‘change to a cashless society’ is a larger plan to reduce the national debt. As someone else said above, it becomes easier to knock a few zeros off bank accounts and force people into a new system.

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Just one month ago, I received an electronic money payment through a smartphone payment system. My bank then received a list of 8-9 questions from the Japan Central Bank on the nature of the payment, reason, identities of payer and payee and the payment system. I had to meet with them and to provide around 9 pages of data to them.

They of course claim it was to prevent money-laundering! But if that is how they will behave towards non-bank payments, this will not get off the ground.

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Agree with most of the posters here. You only have to look at China's social credit system to see where this is leading. Millions of Chinese have already been blacklisted and are forbidden from flying, buying a house or taking anything but lower tier transport and so on. I saw an article today saying 'China starts "Debt Shaming": New app warn users if they are walking near someone in debt.'

Ok that's China but the same could happen in Japan or anywhere else once cash and everything else is fully digitised. You could be fined, for example, for jay walking and only find out that you apparently did something wrong after the payment had been automatically deducted from your account.

A cashless system would also be open to abuse by the tax man, the banks or anyone else with control over your digitised "money". At least with cash you have some control.

Personally I prefer to use cash and use my card only when necessary.

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Company don't physically transfer paper cash from its coffers to an employee or vendor's bank account. All B2B cash transfers, etc. are already done electronically. This isn't some dramatic step forward nor is it necessary.

"Cryptocurrencies, that tend to be volatile, will likely be excluded."

"Cryptocurrencies, which have no real value, will likely be excluded"

There. Fixed it for you.

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More payment via bank, More Expenditure through online. It's uncontrollable.

People (even rich ones) in Asia prefer using these safety money steel box which no one can able to access or even take out the whole thing from the secret spot.

You can even find the shops in some streets of HK. You might have also seen in classic films or more recently in HK film 'Election 1 & 2' and 'Project Gutenburg'.

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If the aim is to 'promote a shift toward a cashless society', then why not just promote infrastructure to make cashless easier?

Make it easier to pay cashless. Don't make me hold up the queue signing for use of my prepaid card for a few hundred yen, as if I were using a credit card to make a purchase involving hundreds of thousands of yen.

Make cashless a bit cheaper (like train fares are a bit cheaper if you use Suica instead of cash).

Just gimme my money, and I'll decide how, where and when I want to use it.

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Bank transfers and electronic payments are different. The funds availability covering both are different. With Bank transfers the money must be available at the senders end and then will be made available at the recipients end. This will be a hard withdrawal. Electronic transfers simply see if the funds are available or if the bank will pre approve the available funds on the senders end and will make it available on the recipients end. At the end of the day when things are processed through ACH, it will either balance out or they will be taken back out of the recipients accounts if the funds are not there at the end of the day.

Bank Transfer: Funds MUST be available to send.

Electronic transfers: Assumption that the funds will be or remain available by the end of the day.

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Last month, the government said at a meeting on special strategic economic zones that the introduction of digital money is a "topic to address swiftly,"

Why the rush?! Is it really about assisting foreign blue collar workers? IMO that's probably way down on the list of reasons and really just a pretext to introduce it.

Back in Sept 2017 rt.com published an article headlined "Japan considers killing cash by launching own cryptocurrency". It said that authorities in Japan were considering starting a digital currency called the J-coin.

The government and, lets be honest, the banks have been gagging at the bit to get this going. The whole article reads more like a promotion than a balanced article.

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^ chomping at the bit

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It's all part of a global master plan. A global credit system where the elite monopolizes funds at will and there is nothing we can do to stop it. Japan must face the music or else. The NWO is about to kick off. GOD save us all!

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"Michael, have a look at what Lindsay says about Australia. It's been at least forty years here since I or anyone I know last got paid in cash, and no-one has ripped us off via covert inflation or salary reduction. And what's more, there's still plenty of cash notes available if that's what you prefer.

Really, there's nothing to be afraid of."

Sorry @Big Ben & @Lindsay - that is just telling the (almost) cashless side of things

There is plenty to be afraid of.

I am in Australia now. Have been living here on and off for 40 years (in between Japan/Vietnam)

There are still markets/shops that don't accept eftpos - because no bank transactions, no declaring taxes to the TaxMan - last time it happened to me, only last weekend

Some shops will not accept your bank card if your purchase is less than $10AUD - why? because the BIG 4 below charges the shop owners handling anything less than $10AUD - bakeries down the road have the signs up

Every month I was paying bank fees. I don't anymore; I decided to bank with a Dutch multinational banking and financial services. No monthly fees for holding my money, so charges to withdrawal, and every international purchase rebate is deposited back in my account

Four major banks - National Australia Bank, Westpac, ANZ, Commonwealth ...... LOVE Accounts holders - You put your money in the bank, they charge you; you draw them out (so you can go to the "cash-only" shops), they charge you; Children savings bank accounts that have gone to zero balance, they charge them - even if the balance is in negative - Shameless!

Too frustrating to mention about unethical lending practices - including high interest rates on credit cards.

So just keep in mind for Japan --

There are some good points for salaries/wages be deposited in your account.

But somehow to me, in Australia - cash is still okay to have- even if this is the age of advanced technology.

Below are just some of the boring reads about Australian banks ripping off customers - just because of cashless "ideas" - and just because they can.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-05/criminal-cartel-charges-against-anz-citigroup-deutsche/9837368

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-06/nab-mlc-and-nulis-taken-to-court-by-asic/10209960

https://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/court-questions-westpacs-35m-asic-deal-20180921-h15one

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-01/asic-civil-penalty-proceedings-against-westpac/8315528

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my apologies to Big Yen (my error for referring to you as Big Ben) - ne?

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.

Well it's the trend of the future.

There are countries, like Sweden that are almost virtually cashless.

.

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