What is the most popular payment method in Japan?
Credit cards. They made up 82.7% of cashless payment value in 2025, according to METI. QR code wallets are the second cashless method by value, at 10.2%.
In detail
Credit cards. They made up 82.7% of cashless payment value in 2025, or ¥134.6 trillion, according to METI. Japanese issuers had about 320 million credit cards in circulation in March 2025, roughly three cards per adult. Debit cards stay small, at 3.4% of cashless value.
JCB and local habits
JCB, the domestic scheme, sits next to Visa and Mastercard in almost every wallet, and many cards are co-branded with retailers, railways or telecom groups. Japanese shoppers also choose how to repay at the moment of purchase: single payment, installments, revolving or bonus-month payment.
The second layer: QR wallets
QR code wallets are the second cashless method by value, at 10.2%. PayPay dominates them, with 75 million registered users in August 2026. Contactless e-money such as Suica and PASMO is the older layer, now declining in value.
What it means for payment operators
A Japanese checkout built only for Visa, Mastercard and PayPal misses part of the market. Operators serving merchants in Japan need JCB acceptance, an acquirer that passes installment options to the issuer, a leading QR wallet and local methods such as konbini payment. Connecting them once and enabling them per merchant keeps launches manageable.