My First 182 Days in (The Future) Japan…Part 1
I’ve always been fascinated by technology and Japan has been that place for the birth of many technological wonders, it’s been now 7 months since I moved here, and have had the opportunity to experience a lot of things firsthand.
It’s safe to say that my being in Japan has exposed me to many experiences that I would never have experienced in any other country even if more developed than Japan.
Am writing this article to share some of the experiences that I’ve had here that are not in my home country of Uganda(of course the list is very long), this is not any form aimed at comparing my home with Japan. I will use this space to share my experience with someone like me back home who might never get the chance to be here. So this is me giving you a guided tour through my everyday life.
Tap and Go, the Magic IC card
To take a train, you need a ticket, well this is for you who is probably visiting or you have not yet applied to get your Integrated Circuit(IC) card that you tap on the “gates” to the different train platforms.
I use the title tap and go as it is very fast in processing your deduction that by the time your behind foot is raised to take a step forward, you’re ready to go, from deduction to displaying balance, and the amount deducted is already complete.
And yes, even flapping of the gate doors for the rear occasion when you’re out of funds is very fast, I think that even the flap gate doors were made multidirectional and soft to avoid you hurting yourself, since you never expect them to close on you or they do expect you to be walking first.
Coming from Uganda where my debit card payment via POS at different petrol stations would take a few minutes, plus(the slow railing of the receipt out the machine) I do sometimes just step aside to experience these technological wonders as millions of commuters tap and go throughout the day.
In less than 3 minutes, 1 can do 3 different transactions using the IC card, say, you get off the train, tap at the exit gate, walk to a vending machine, tap the card, get a drink, and tap the card to cross to another train platform. All these transactions will be processed without error.
Shop Online and Pay Offline.
Back home I’ve had conversations with people who are not willing to pay using their Bank Debit Cards for fear of Fraud cases, or not even trusting the technology, worse is always that awkward moment of your card being rejected for so many reasons that I can’t list none having to do with not having funds.
Well, Japan has a solution for that, since you cannot have a debit/credit card in Japan before 6 months of stay, you are only left with a cash card for withdrawing from ATMs, so what do you do when you need to shop online or pay for your phone services within this time, Connivence Store Payment Option.
This truly amazed me and made me think about all the people who could participate in online transactions and complete payments at their local shop or supermarket.
So how does it work?
At the checkout point on your shopping site, like Amazon, there is an option for convenience store payment, you select this option, and a payment ID is generated for you.
Then stores like 7/11 and Family Mart have this machine that looks like an ATM, where you will put your payment ID, and a receipt with the bar code is generated then you head to the counter and pay cash to the cashier, and boom, your payment is completed, the generated payment IDs are valid for like 72 hours depending on the platform and Payment is verified shortly after the cashier completes the payment, just like if you were paying for a soda in the supermarket.
This payment option provides an opportunity for internet service providers and Petrol stations to compete against mobile money, it can be used for even money sending and receiving money.
Most Petrol stations like Total, Rubis, and Shell, already exist across major towns and cities in Uganda, and ISPs like RokeTelkom have great coverage.
A partnership like this could provide safe online payments of online shopping, bill payment, and so on at lower cost, am personally interested in exploring this but happy to see someone with the muscle go at it.
As a bonus these in store machines, have other self services, like printing and fort copying, photo printing etc (still afraid to explore other functionality, there is the language issue.)
So Many Payment Platforms
I now know the value of a large population, there will always be a sizeable market base for each service provider.
Am always amazed by the number of payment service providers that one merchant can accept in their stores of course with added ease of use, tap your phone or Apple Watch, scan the QR code, tap your credit/debit card, Point card, IC card…
At first, I was puzzled by why there would be so many payment platforms in a country that is already very efficient with a strong banking sector and digital payment options.
But considering the size of the population, each provider caters to a certain demography mostly through value-added services or the other way round, payment provider is a result of the service that the company provides.
For example, I have a second-hand platform, I will build a payment platform on top of that user base that by default has a use case of the payment service and then make the service usable on other platforms.
The other issue is really, that the bigger the customer base, the slower you will be inclined to drastic innovation.
And then, there are zero transaction costs, I’m not charged for making a payment with my own money through the platform, MobileMoney did you read that?
In the next articles, I will share about the train and transport system that will make you understand the importance of a 1-minute difference, then we shall talk about vending machines for everything and smart parking space, and more.. stay tuned.
My goal with these articles is high highlight systematic changes and technologies that even a country like Uganda to make it easy for people to enjoy living while also helping me share knowledge that would otherwise be passed by through social media scrolling.
If you’re reading this sentence, thank you for reading and I would appreciate it if you could share this article with someone who would use the information here.
