An increasing number of people are using e-money systems when paying for train tickets, shopping at stores and making other payments.
And more convenience stores are letting customers use so-called smart cards, which are embedded with a tiny chip that enables payments. East Japan Railway Co. introduced its Suica cards in 2002 as an alternative to buying tickets or regular commuter passes.
Bitwallet, a joint venture between Sony Corp, NTT DoCoMo Inc., banks and other players, introduced the Edy contactless card-based e-money system in 2001.