In a country notorious for its reliance on cash, municipalities across Japan have been staging drives promoting the uptake of electronic payments to stimulate digitalized consumption by granting shopping points for transactions using QR codes.
The campaigns, run mostly as one-off events in collaboration with local businesses and shop owners, have become increasingly popular, carried out on numerous occasions by many of the municipalities involved. But not everyone is happy.
Some remain reluctant, especially elderly people and others who find digital devices difficult to operate, and who continue to view cash as the be-all and end-all for making purchases.