There are multiple types of cards commonly available in Japan:
- Cash Cards (ATM Cards) – These can be used at ATMs to deposit, withdraw, and transfer cash, and sometimes with the J-Debit network to pay for things at a limited number of stores. These cards serve the same purpose as passbooks that are used for some accounts, and you can typically have both on the same account.
- “Normal” (Post Paid) Credit Cards – These are cards with the JCB, Visa, Mastercard, or Amex brand that can be used to pay for goods and services. Most of these cards support the contact IC (Chip & Pin) standard, and may also have a magnetic stripe. In addition, most have a number printed on them that can be used for online purchases. “Numberless” (NL) cards without a number or mag stripe are becoming more common in recent times for purposes of fraud prevention. Some allow creation of “virtual numbers” online. Also, some cards support international contactless payment standards like “Visa Touch”, and some support Japanese contactless payment standards like iD or QuickPay. The major brands can also be used to charge prepaid contactless eMoney, such as Suica and Edy. Typically, purchases made on a credit card are due in full the following billing cycle by default, though it is a common feature to be able to spread a payment out into N payments, where N may be anywhere from 2 to 24 payments. Revolving payment plans are also supported by some cards. Typically payments made with 1 or 2 payments are free of charge, whereas payments made over more than 2 months, including revolving payments charge interest or a service fee. Some credit cards will allow you to generate virtual numbers for online shopping as well. We will cover credit cards in more detail in a future installment.
- Debit Cards (often called Check Cards overseas, called “Shopping Cards” by many banks in Japan) – Besides the J-Debit feature sometimes supported by cash cards, Visa and JCB debit cards exist, which link directly to a bank account. When you spend money on a debit card, it disappears from your bank account in real time. This is convenient, but dangerous. Sometimes these are issued as a separate card (as is the case for SMBC Standard, Mitsubishi, and many of the larger banks), and sometimes you will be issued a combination cash card/debit card (as is the case with Sony Bank, Rakuten Bank, Prestia, Japan Post Bank, SMBC Olive, and others). Some banks will not issue a physical debit card, but will issue virtual debit cards. au Jibun bank follows this pattern, issuing a cash card, but allowing you to generate a credit card number in the app for online payments. Like credit cards, debit cards may or may not support international and/or domestic contactless payments, and some banks allow the generation of virtual numbers.
- Contactless IC cards (electronic money) – These are stored value cards that hold the value internally, not in an account. They can purchased and used anonymously, and charged by cash or sometimes credit card. Mobile app versions exist which will work on Japan market smart phones, and work the same way as the physical card in that they need to be charged before use. These include Suica, Pasmo, Icoca, Edy, Waon, etc. Suica and Pasmo can be used for the bus and train, in addition to convenience stores, supermarkets, cafes, etc. Almost all of these cards used in Japan are constructed using Sony’s Felica technology, and are not compatible with NFC standards used in other countries. These cards will be covered in another post.
- Prepaid Cards (Prepaid Credit Cards) – These are essentially like debit cards, except they are deducting from a balance specific to the card, not directly from a linked bank account. Some cards, however, can be set to automatically charge from a linked bank account if the balance is not enough. Cash can not generally be removed from these cards once charged. Like credit cards, they will usually have a magnetic stripe, and may have contact (EMV) or contactless IC (Felica or NFC) chips. All of the cards I am aware of have a card number for online shopping as well.
Advantages
Prepaid cards have the advantage of being generally easy to apply for and receive, as there is usually no credit check necessary. They can be used for online payments, or at shops – but they usually can’t directly be used to ride public transportation. (They can generally be used to charge mobile Suica, etc., so they can be used indirectly for transportation).
Prepaid cards also make budgeting easy, as you can put money into a prepaid card that you plan to spend for groceries, etc., to ensure you don’t go over your limit, without worrying about accidentally using up the balance in your bank account that might be needed for direct debits, or receiving a large credit card bill in the future.
Prepaid cards are safe. The most money that could ever be stolen or lost the amount on the card. Identity theft and fraud are therefore much less of a concern.
Disadvantages
Some web sites or merchants will not accept prepaid cards. This depends on whether the bank and payment processor flag the card as a prepaid card, so which cards work where will vary. For example, I had a payment be denied at a bar in Hokkaido using my au WALLET card, but it worked with SMBC Prepaid.
Typically, you can only use the balance on the card – which means you should check the balance before making purchases. Some cards have automatic recharge features – but this largely defeats the purpose of using a prepaid card in the first place.
Popular Prepaid Cards
Since prepaid cards vary in features, we will cover a few of the more common ones here:
SMBC Visa Puripe (Prepaid)
This is Sumitomo Mitsubishi Bank’s standard prepaid card. (There are also ANA and Family versions) The ANA version was discontinued in 2023. The plain version and family versions are covered here.
Application: You don’t need a bank account with them to apply, in fact basically anyone can apply online. Technically, you need to have a mobile phone number / email address, and be at least 6 years old.
Name: The card is issued with your actual name printed in Romaji on the front.
Brand: This card is Visa branded.
Contact IC: This was one of the first with a contact (Chip & Pin) IC. That makes this card better if you plan to use it in person for large purchases, especially overseas.
International Contactless IC: Visa touch is supported on the card itself. This will work in Japan but is only supported in a limited number of places and is usually inconvenient to use. Better is the fact that this should work overseas as well. Visa Touch is also supported on Apple Pay.
Domestic Contactless ID: The physical card itself has no domestic contactless payment support, but if you register the card with Apple Pay or Google Pay, it supports iD. Since a large number of shops support iD, this is quite convenient.
Transportation IC: This card can be used to charge Mobile Suica.
Charge methods:
Balance check: The card has a QR code on the reverse, which can be used to check your balance without logging in. This is super convenient, since it only takes a few seconds to check your balance. You can scan the code once and save a bookmark on your phone, so that you can easily check the balance in the future without even scanning the code. If you want to do anything else, such as charging the card or changing any settings, you will of course need to log in.
Notifications: A mail will be sent when the card is used. Optionally, you can set a monthly spending limit, over which another notification mail will be sent.
Design: This card is silver and rather plain looking, and in fact looks exactly like the normal SMBC credit cards, with the exception of “prepaid” printed in small grey lettering on the front. The number is printed on the back of the card.
Points & Cashback: 0.25% cash back, added to the balance on the 10th of each month based on the usage of the previous month.
Maximum Balance: 300,000 JPY (~$3,000 USD)
Fees:
This is one of our favorite cards because it can be charged for free from cash (at 7-11), supports Visa Touch and iD, and does not show up as a prepaid card to merchants – which means it typically works even on web sites merchants that block prepaid cards.
URL: https://www.smbc-card.com/prepaid/visaprepaid/index.jsp
d Card Prepaid
The mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo has their own credit card, d Card (previously: DCMX), and this is the prepaid version of that. This card business is actually run by SMBC, so it is mostly the same as the SMBC Puripe card listed above.
Application: You don’t need any particular bank account or credit card to apply, in fact basically anyone can apply online. There seems to be an impression that you need to be a Docomo user or have a d Card to apply, but this is not true. You do need to create a “d Account” in order to apply, but anyone with an email address can do that. Another requirement is that you must be at least 12 years old.
Name: The card is issued with the name “PREPAID MEMBER” printed on the front, so that name should be used when making online purchases. This is good for privacy, but means that merchants who try to match names may not accept the card.
Brand: This card is Mastercard branded.
Contact IC: This card has no contact IC. This means if you use the card in the traditional way (i.e. not contactless or online), you will need to swipe the card, and then sign in many cases. Since magnetic stripe is on the way out, we expect that this will be updated in the near future.
International Contactless IC: None on the physical card itself. You will have to swipe the card if you are overseas. The card supports Mastercard Contactless when using Apple Pay (Google Pay is not yet supported).
Domestic Contactless ID: The iD standard is supported on the physical card itself, which means you can use the card contactlessly at most commercial retail stores in Japan. (This is not surprising since Docomo is a big backer of iD).
Transportation IC: This card can be used to charge Mobile Suica.
Charge methods:
Balance check: The balance can be checked from the d Card Prepaid web site. This site works on mobile, but you will have to log in even just to check your balance. Once you log in, the browser will remember the login via cookies, but every time you access the site, you will need to enter your date of birth before you can do anything.
Notifications: A mail will be sent when the card is used. You can set up two email addresses.
Design: The current design of the card is yellow on the front. The card number is printed on the front of the card. The card doubles as a d Point card, so there is a bar code on the reverse side for that.
Points & Cashback: 1 d Point per 200 yen spent, which equates to 0.5%. These points can be used to charge the card, among other things. The card can be used as a point card, even when paying cash.
Maximum Balance: 300,000 JPY (~$3,000 USD)
Fees:
URL: https://dcard.docomo.ne.jp/prepaid/index.html
Kazoku no Osaifu Prepaid Card
This card is also issued by SMBC, and in fact is really the same as the SMBC Visa Pripe card, except it lets you create multiple cards linked to the same account.
There are two main ways to link the cards:
a. Shared balance – In this case, any of the cards can use the shared balance. This might be a good choice for sharing a monthly grocery allowance with your significant other, etc.
b. Separate balances – In this case, each card has a separate balance. The “main” card can transfer money to any of the other cards. This might be a good choice for letting your children have their own card and sending them their allowance payments.
Transferring balances between cards can be done via the web site or mobile app. (The mobile app can in fact be used for the normal Visa Pripe cards listed above – just the transfer features won’t work).
Physical design: You can choose one of the playful designs, or choose the plain silver design used for the normal SMBC cards.
Everything else about this card other than the physical design is the same as the SMBC Visa Puripe card, so we won’t repeat ourselves here.
URL: https://www.smbc-card.com/prepaid/kazokunoosaifu/index.jsp
JCB ANA Milage Club Prepaid Card
Note: ANA and JCB have announced that this service will end in November 2025, so they are no longer taking new applications for this card.
Interestingly, the almost identical looking Visa version of this card is offered by SMBC, but the JCB version is offered directly by JCB itself. The only prepaid card (other than gift cards) that JCB offers is the ANA branded one. Despite the ANA branding, you can choose between receiving miles or cash back when you apply – but either way it will be ANA branded. Even a cash back card still has an ANA point number on it, though, and so can you can use this number when buying plane tickets from ANA or affiliated airlines. Note that ANA is part of Star Alliance.
Application: There are no real requirements listed for application on the main page, but the application process is somewhat more involved than most others, much like applying for a normal credit card.
Name: The card is issued withthe name your actual name (in Romaji) printed on the front, so that name should be used when making online purchases.
Brand: This card is JCB branded.
Contact IC: This card has no contact IC. This means if you use the card in the traditional way (i.e. not contactless or online), you will need to swipe the card, and then sign in many cases. We expect that this feature will be added in the near future.
International Contactless IC: None on the physical card itself. Unknown if this works on Mobile, so you should assume contactless payment won’t be available overseas.
Domestic Contactless ID: None supported on the physical card itself. The QuickPay standard is supported on Google Pay. Apple Pay is not mentioned anywhere.
Transportation IC: Untested. (Presumably works).
Charge methods:
Balance check: The balance can be checked from the MyCard web site. This site works on mobile, but you will have to log in even just to check your balance. There is a QR Code on the back of the card to make this easier if you are on mobile.
Notifications: A mail will be sent when the card is used. You can set up two email addresses.
Design: You can chose between grey, blue, or pink. The card number is printed on the front of the card. The card doubles as an ANA Milage Point card, so there is also a number printed on the front side for that.
Points & Cashback: As mentioned above, you can choose between Miles or Cashback when applying for the card. I will list both here:
Miles:
Cashback:
Regardless of which method you choose, there is also a bonus paid twice a year based on the amount you charge (not spend):
Since you can charge this card in person using cash or via bank account for free relatively easily, it is one of the better cards if you are wanting to earn points and save on fees.
Maximum Balance: 300,000 JPY (~$3,000 USD)
Fees:
URL: https://www.jcb.co.jp/prepaid/ana_prepaid.html
au Pay (Prepaid) / Previously au WALLET
This card is offered by KDDI’s au Mobile phone carrier.
Application: You must have an au Pay Account (and app), and also be either:
- An au subscriber (mobile or hikari (fiber) internet)
- An au Jibun Bank account holder with an account linked to au Pay
People have the impression that you must be an au Subsriber to get this card, but since anyone with an au Jibun Bank account can get one (and you can apply for an account online easily enough), it is actually open to anyone who can open a bank account.
It should be noted that there is also an “au Pay” card which is not prepaid, but a normal credit card.
The au Pay service is a basically an app based QR Code payment app, much like PayPay, etc. You need to install this app and create an account. Once you link it to an account, you will be able to charge and use the app to pay via bar code or QR code and charge mobile Suica from the app as well. If you link it to an au Jibun Bank account then they will automatially send you an au Pay prepaid card. Presumably the same is true if you have an au subscription on the same au Account used by the app.
This card is really an extension of the au Pay app.
Name: The card is issued with your actual name printed in Romaji on the front.
Brand: This card is MasterCard branded.
Contact IC: This has no contact IC. This means you will usually need to sign if you are charging a large amount on the physical card. 2024 Update: New cards are issued with CHIP&PIN compatible contact ICs.
International Contactless IC: None on the card itself. 2024 Update: Mastercard Touch.
Domestic Contactless ID:
Transportation IC:
Charge methods:
Balance check: You can check the balance on the web site or application.
Notifications: No Information.
Design: The card apparently comes in two varieties, orange and silver. The front of the card has the card number and accountholder name. The back has a signature panel and WebMoney bar code. WebMoney is basically a generic gift-card type format that can be used on some online shops, and is supported bu the au Pay card.
Points & Cashback:
Maximum Balance: 500,000 JPY (~$5,000 USD)
Other Features:
Starting in April, 2024:
Fees:
URL: https://www.au.com/payment/prepaid/
Other Examples
- Merucari is an online fleemarket app that also has a QR Code based payment system. For example, you can sell goods, and hold a balance in Merucari for the funds you received. You can transfer that balance back to your bank account, but you can also pay for goods with QR code, or, with Google Pay, you can pay using iD. Merucari will also send you a physical prepaid card if you request. This makes it similar to au Pay in many respects since it is app centric and the Physical card is just an add-on.
- There is a prepaid card called Kyash.
- This card has features to let you share with family members and friends, similar to kasoku no osaifu.
- This card can be virtual only, or you can request a physical card.
- More information can be found on the Kyash page here.
- Mitsubishi UFJ Bank is now offering a prepaid card called バンドルカード (Bundle Card).
- This card starts as a virtual card only, but you can pay a small fee for a physical card as well.
- More information can be found on their page here.
- There are prepaid cards issued by banks and linked to bank accounts.
- Japan Post used to have the Mijica card, but they discontinued this and replaced it with a debit card.
- Rakuten bank offers a prepaid card that can be charged from a Rakuten bank balance.
- You must have a Rakuten Bank account first in order to apply for this card.
- More information can be found on their site here.
- There are prepaid cards issued by credit card companies as daughter cards of a main card
- Examples in this list of prepaid cards linked to normal credit cards mentioned above include “d Card prepaid” and “SMBC Prepaid Card”, but these cards can be issued without having a credit card from the company, and charged using other methods.
- A good example of a prepaid card dependent on a credit card is the Marui ePos prepaid card, which can be applied for as a daughter card to the Marui ePos Credit Card.
Overall Thoughts
Debit/Credit Card style Prepaid cards still have minimal market share penetration in Japan. For example, Mitsubishi Tokyo Bank offers Visa debit cards and credit cards, but not prepaid cards. Likewise there are no American Express branded prepaid cards at this point in time. Depending on your use case, charging Mobile Suica from a debit card may be useful instead.
Bank accounts can typically be opened and maintained for free, meaning that the difference between debit cards and prepaid cards is mainly that debit cards are connected to a bank account, so you can always withdraw the cash.
If you need to keep money in your bank account for pending direct debits and don’t want to worry about overspending, you can open a separate “allowance” account at another bank, or use a prepaid card.
Gift card style cards are another option, including virtual gift cards such as Amazon, etc. – but prepaid cards are more flexible in where they can be used.
Things like Merucari and bundle card can function as virtual prepaid cards even without a physical card.
Although the number of prepaid cards on the market is limited at this time, there is still a variety of cards with different features for different needs. For example:
Additional Considerations:
- Some web sites accept prepaid cards, but require that cards you use have 3D-Secure support. 3D-Secure is a system where you have to enter a password when registering the card, for fraud prevention purposes. Not all cards support this, for example au Pay Prepaid just implemented this feature recently.
- Prepaid cards are still behind normal credit cards and debit cards in terms of features. For example, some banks and credit card issuers allow you to set the times of day when a card will work, and precise spending limits per day. For example, with a Rakuten Visa Debit card, you could set the card to only allow charges of up to 8,000 JPY per day. If you intended to use the card only at the supermarket, this could prevent fraud. Likewise, if you know you will only want to use a card during the daytime, you sould set it to be inactive between 10pm and 10am. Many debit/credit cards, such as Marui ePos Credit card and PayPay Bank’s debit card, allow you to set up virtual card numbers with set spending limits and expiration dates for online purchases. Many of these features are not yet available on prepaid cards.
- If you are not looking to use the card online, or hold a large balance, and will mainly be using it for small payments at places like supermarkets and convenience stores, than a stored value eMoney card like Suica may be a better fit.
- Even though prepaid cards don’t involve the issue extending credit, you still need to register your personal information and provide ID and proof of address. If you prefer something you can use instantly and anonymously, then again stored value e-Money like Suica may be a better fit.
- Invoices that come by mail for things like utility bills can generally only be paid in cash, and not with debit cards. Generally Nanaco can also be used at 7-11, and other exceptions may apply.
Comparison
| Card | Points | Apple Pay | Google Pay | Contact | Contactless (Card) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMBC Visa Pripe | Cash Back | Y (iD, Visa) | Y (iD) | Y | Visa Touch |
| d Card Prepaid | d Point | Y (iD, Mastercard) | N | N | iD |
| Kazoku no Osaifu | Cash Back | Y (iD, Visa) | Y (iD) | Y | Visa Touch |
| au Pay Prepaid Card | Ponta Points | Y (QuickPay, MasterCard) | N? | Y (2024~) | MasterCard (2024~) |
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