Japan is experiencing nationwide credit card payments issues | Hacker News Reader

Japan is experiencing nationwide credit card payments issues

www3.nhk.or.jp

51 pointsmethou22 comments

Deepl:

According to several credit card companies, since the evening of November 11, there have been problems with credit card transactions at supermarkets, convenience stores, and JR stations nationwide. According to the credit card companies, the system of "Japan Card Network," which operates the credit card payment system, has experienced a system failure.

A system critical floppy drive failed in a back room somewhere

Underrated comment. Japan still runs on fax machines.

Well, Germany does too.

And the US. Anyone who's ever had to deal with short term FMLA leave or a workplace injury has probably had to deal with getting doctors to fill out forms and fax them to their company's servicer. Or just transferring medical records to a new doctor in another city...your options are probably calling and asking to have them faxed or mailed.

Medical and law entirely runs on fax in the US.

The article now reads that the trouble has been resolved (*since about an hour ago)

One of the main card processor (Cardnet) was down for about 7h, and it's the 3rd time in recent years (happened twice in 2017 and 2019 per the article).

This is a big deal, while still being limited (there's other card payment processors) and less impacting than if it happened in more card centric countries.

Many people solely rely on cash and prepaid electronic wallets, which are more widely accepted than credit card (one can easily find a small shop that only accepts cash and PayPay or Suica, with no intent to ever accept credit card)

I guess that's not too bad, just pay with your IC card if it's not a big purchase. Basically everyone in the big cities already carries one for use in transit. Don't think bars accept them though, then again most people use cash for saturday nights (from my experience, since it's easier to split bills this way).

Japan no longer issues IC cards.

Digital wallet versions of those cards still work fine, though. I visited Japan a month ago and found that on iPhones or Apple Watches you don’t even need a special app — the stock Wallet app can generate new virtual Suica, PASMO, or ICOCA cards on demand.

That's not correct. The Welcome Suica IC card is still issued. https://www.jreast.co.jp/multi/en/welcomesuica/welcomesuica....

IIRC it was the temporary ones not being issued. There are IC cards that are "branded" to only function for a month (or 3?) meant travelers. But they have decided to save the chips for standard IC cards.

I haven't been there since May, so I heard that the chip shortage is affecting new IC cards, although your sentence seems to indicate that's a permanent change?

Anyways there are still plenty of people with IC cards even if they stopped issuing new ones. Most people have probably had theirs for years.

Not true. I bought a new Icoca recently.

Australia had a nationwide internet meltdown a few days ago. Something's brewing?

Huh, didnt realise they had one to use. Every time we have tried to pay with card in japan it has been either impossible or a huge song and dance, even involving the old click clack slide impression carbon paper tools.

When's the last time you were in Japan? I can't remember the last time I carried cash in JP unless I knew, ahead of time, that I was going to a ramen joint that used a vending machine. Between Suica on your phone and a credit card, you rarely ever need cash in big cities.

Smaller towns are a bit of a different story though.

I was in Tokyo a few months ago and I could pay with my foreign credit card in most stores (supermarkets, department stores, chain stores, ...) Even NFC and Google Pay worked, which still don't in Korea for instance.

The Tokyo Metro booth at Haneda doesn't accept credit cards though, I had to withdraw cash in order to get a Pasmo (the JR booth was already closed for the evening).

At restaurants, cafés and small stores it was usually either cash only, or cash plus a combination among the dozen mobile payments solutions that exist in Japan. Very confusing.

Nowadays it should be more seameless, but yes a while ago foreign credit cards were a PITA to use in most places. And there's still many services that aren't set to trigger 3Dsecure at payment, making EU cards virtually unusable.

Is the European 3DSecure verification only for non-card present transactions or for all? Otherwise, businesses using NFC readers shouldn't pose a problem for european tourists.

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