Can I Use My Credit Card In Japan

If y'all hail from a Western country or just somewhere with a less idiosyncratic fiscal system than Nihon, you're probably used to credit card companies busting down your door to sign you up for that powerful piece of plastic. Every bit a foreigner in Japan, it's less about choosing a bill of fare and more well-nigh finding a company that volition fifty-fifty give y'all a carte du jour.

Why is it and so hard for a foreigner to get a credit carte du jour in Japan?

While you may accept a solid credit history back dwelling, Japanese credit carte du jour companies don't subscribe to the credit agencies yous utilise dorsum habitation (they use one called JICC)—and they're way more than conservative. To the credit card companies, y'all're a blank slate and possibly a flight run a risk if you decide to leave Japan without settling your bills.

Looking for a debit bill of fare, and an like shooting fish in a barrel way to transport money overseas? Likely the cheapest and easiest method for transferring your yen out of Japan is Wise (formerly TransferWise). They also offer a multi-currency account and very handy debit card, making spending, sending and receiving money from away simple.

How are Japan credit cards unlike from credit cards elsewhere?

Payment in full

In most countries, you can spend money on your credit carte du jour then pay information technology off every bit you wish. As long as yous pay the minimum corporeality due, you can defer payment for as long equally you similar (while incurring involvement, of course). Yet, Japanese credit cards require payment in full the following month.

Typically, for consumer credit cards, the period that the monthly nib covers is from the 16th of a given month until the 15th of the following month. The account summary with the amount attributable is sent to the holder by the stop of the month. The amount is settled by automatic payment on the 10th of the following calendar month.

For example, for the period Baronial 16th to September 15th, the account summary would exist received by the end of September, with the amount automatically withdrawn on Oct tenth. Since you're paying in full, no interest is charged.

Choose payment in installments (bunkastsu barai)

While you have to pay the amount of the statement in full, you tin choose to split a purchase payment (known as bunkatsu barai) when you buy something. This tin be requested on the credit card terminal at the bespeak of sale. You can either pay it all in one get (ikkatsu barai) or you tin can dissever information technology into upwardly to 36 payments.

The higher the number of payments, the more than you lot pay though. The total interest you pay may be between 12% and 16.37% of the total, depending on the bill of fare. So if yous decide to pay off a JPY 200,000 laptop computer over 24 months, the total amount you pay will end up being around JPY 232,000 (assuming a 16% interest charge per unit).

Revolving payments (ribo barai)

Known as ribo barai, this allows yous to split your bill payments if you'd prefer not to pay it all in 1 go. To exercise this, you need to request it from your card issuer, and they need to corroborate you. Equally with bunkatsu barai, there will be an involvement/admin accuse to divide upward your nib payments.

For instance, if you owed JPY 120,000 on your statement, you could asking to break off JPY 60,000, and pay it off over a period of six months.

Low credit limits

On a regular card (not Golden, Platinum or Black) credit limits are low—often only JPY 100,000 (less than The states$1,000). While you tin can use them for regular payments, shopping online, or eating out, the low credit limit effectively makes them useless for purchasing large items like airline tickets—unless yous choose payment in installments.

What are the options?

All banks in Japan take a necktie-upwardly with one or more of the big brands: Visa, Mastercard or JCB. Additionally, yous can use straight to JCB or American Express. Visa, Mastercard and JCB are the most widely accepted cards in Nihon. Some merchants may refuse American Express considering of the higher merchant fees. Outside of Japan, JCB is by and large but accepted in places that are frequented by Japanese tourists.

What's the all-time way to avert the rejection and become my hands on some plastic?

Equally y'all don't have a credit record, it's more probable you lot will be rejected. The tips below are not guaranteed to work, but may help. Anecdotal evidence (it's either super piece of cake or super hard), and the opaque requirements hateful that information technology'southward difficult to know exactly what will work, or exactly what will trip you up. Again, no guarantees.

Ordinarily required:

Visa to remain in Japan (not a tourist visa!)
A Japanese banking company account
An inkan/personal seal (if you used it to open your banking company business relationship)
Proof of address (ordinarily a utility bill) with YOUR Proper noun on information technology
A certificate of employment—and if you lot were in Japan the previous year, a tax certificate showing income and tax paid

Apparently, these may help:

Using a (Japanese) driver's license for ID instead of your residency card (your residency card shows how long you've been in Japan).
Having a spouse visa (i.e., married to a Japanese national) or, even better, permanent residence.
Providing a fixed line home phone number (this might be out of engagement).
Having a full-time job—freelancers, contract workers, part-timers and company owners may be at a disadvantage.
Living in Nihon for a long time.
Applying for a co-branded card with a mileage program you already have.
Non applying for lots of cards in succession. Thank you to JICC, whatever previous failed applications are visible to any companies to which you apply.
Taking any opportunity for financing—even if you're just buying a Boob tube. Getting credit and paying information technology dorsum will establish a credit record.

Anecdotally, Amazon cards, JCB cards, Rakuten and American Express cards accept a reputation to be easier to get. The yearly fees for Amex cards seem to be much higher on average though.

The Japanese supermarket behemothic Aeon has credit cards, which are quite useful if you do your shopping there—you collect Waon points and get discounts on groceries. Other perks include discounts on cinema tickets and JAL air miles. You tin apply for a Visa, Mastercard or JCB card, but you have to do information technology in Japanese. They as well take family cards and aureate cards, besides equally a fuel card necktie-up with Cosmo.

Yearly fee or no yearly fee

japan credit cards — Photo past iStock.com/alexialex

Regular cards

Many regular cards have a yearly membership fee from the second year. Some of the cards tied to point programs have no yearly fees. The fee for cards with yearly fees range from around JPY 515 to JPY 2,160. An outlier is American Express, with yearly card fees from JPY 7,560 to JPY 12,960 depending on whether it is co-branded or directly through American Express.

Gold cards

Gilded cards unremarkably have higher annual fees than regular cards, although the fees can vary a lot depending on the provider. Fees are by and large in the range from JPY 1,950 to JPY 10,800. Once again Amex and Diners are outliers with American Limited charging betwixt JPY 28,080 and JPY 33,480. The annual cost for a Diners is betwixt JPY 27,000 and JPY 29,160.

What if I need a chargeback on my bill of fare?

Although this is only actually important if you have a credit card, it's adept to know how it works in Nihon.

One of the benefits of a credit card is that when someone doesn't deliver on a purchase you accept fabricated, yous tin can request to accept the money returned with a chargeback. Exterior Japan, this is unremarkably a relatively easy procedure—you just call the credit carte du jour company and ask them to do a chargeback. Unfortunately in Japan, information technology'due south often a difficult process. For example, with SMBC cards, they will ask you to report it as a fraudulent transaction.

As a result, they will abolish your credit card and issue a new card. The transaction will not exist removed from your account or from the corporeality that yous owe. Then, later you lot've paid, it will have up to 3 months for the chargeback to happen. Rather than a credit on your account, the chargeback will be transferred to your banking company account.

The only explanation for such a convoluted system is that card companies in Japan are more on the merchant'due south side than yours, and then discouraging chargebacks must be skillful for business.

What are the alternatives to a credit carte?

OK, and then you've applied to five different places and they've all come up back with a no, and they won't tell you why they've rejected you. What do you do now? If y'all want to join the 20th-century finance world, you however accept a few options.

Prepaid credit cards and souvenir cards

As the proper noun suggests, y'all either need to pay coin onto them starting time, or buy a gift card with the amount already loaded. For more about prepaid cards and gift cards, see our guide to getting prepaid credit cards in Nippon.

Debit cards

Debit cards have the functionality of a credit card, but the amount of your purchase is immediately deducted from your banking company business relationship. Oft they have the added benefit of coming with points and integrating with mobile wallets similar Apple Pay and Google Pay.

SMBC Debit Bill of fare | Photo by Setsuko Yasuda

If y'all already have a bank account, your current banking concern is your first logical signal of call. All major banks offer debit cards these days, although if yous have a Shinsei Bank account, the only fashion to do this is through their clunky Gaica Menu, which requires you to top information technology up whenever you want to use information technology.

An alternative to the domestic banks is the international debit card offered by Wise. The other benefit of the Wise account is being able to manage and transfer currencies.

Eastward-money and send passes

Remember that yous can likewise use a reloadable IC travel card (Suica or Pasmo) for shopping in Japan. Just load it up with coin, and so spend the balance at participating brick-and-mortar shops around Japan. Unfortunately, the maximum residuum yous tin store on this card is only 20,000 yen, so you lot might have to reload your card oftentimes (with a credit carte, you can set your travel pass to top-upwards automatically, but nosotros're talking about alternatives to credit cards hither!)

See our guide for more on cashless payment methods in Nihon.

This post was get-go published in January 2020. Terminal updated in July 2021.

Japan credit cards

BIO: Tokyo Cheapo's resident cost saving good.