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Comment by mudrockbestgirl | Hacker News Reader

Not my experience. I think you are either just parroting what you read online, live in the countryside, or have not been to Japan for 10+ years. I live in Tokyo and none of what you say is true here. I pay all my rent online, and have for 5 years in all places I've ever lived. I never printed out concert tickets. Seals have become less and less common and are almost never necessary anymore except in very traditional B2B settings. I have one and I have never used it despite have various Japanese bank accounts. They are officially being phased out. I don't know about the ATMs because I never have to use those since 99% of restaurants accept digital payments. Yes, there are still a few that need cash, but it's really just 1%.

Japan is definitely technologically behind. I am not arguing against that. But let's not exaggerate here.

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It could also be that if you live for 10 years in Japan you may have not seen how good are some of the banks abroad in some countries. That transfers are free and instant, that you do not need to justify anything or fill any form, that you can get virtual numbers, one-time numbers, that you also have additional security (3D secure), that you get cashback, that you do not need to give a paper proving where you live, etc.

Many of the benefits you talk about apply to my Japanese bank account too.

Bank transfers are instant and I don't need to fill in any forms (other than the receiving bank account info) or justify anything, and I get cashbacks both in form of cash and points that I can use at the konbini, etc.

I also don't need to give out any papers showing where I live, instead they send a kind of sealed postcard to my stated address to verify it.

I don't know much about 3-D secure, is that like MFA? If so I guess I have that too, but you're probably taking about something else.

Bank transfers are not free though and I don't get one-time use credit card numbers, mainly because my bank doesn't include a credit card to begin with, but services like Revolut are available here too (just maybe not very popular).

I do agree financial services are generally behind the times here, just maybe not in all the ways some may think.

How much time does it take you to send or receive an international wire transfer?

Do you need to bring a passport or other documents to exchange currencies?

Oh, I was talking about domestic transfers. I've never done an international wire transfer so I wouldn't know, sorry.

3DS (Three Domains Secure) means that when you try to buy something online, the merchant sends you to your bank, who then authenticates you in some way. It's usually an SMS code, which means it's technically "MFA for credit cards".

Though keep in mind that 3DS was also rolled out with a liability shift; banks sold it to merchants as "if you 3DS validate a transaction it's never fraudulent and the customer can't chargeback". Which is obviously untrue if you're using SMS 2FA, which can be defeated. Good thing most American merchants forget to turn on 3D Secure...

Japan has all of the things you listed.

That most if not all the big banks don't is the problem. They make progress, but that's frustratingly slow.

My experience as an American:

- Free or instant, pick one. FedNow was supposed to fix that but AFAIK it hasn't rolled out.

- Opening a bank account involves shittons of KYC paperwork. I've never had to prove residency though. In fact in Utah it's the opposite: you can prove residency (for a state ID card / drivers license) by, among other things, having a bank statement with your new address on it. No clue how that works with paperless.

- Virtual/one-time numbers are a thing but not widespread. Credit card companies sell services intended specifically to ensure getting a new number doesn't cancel recurring charges.

- 3DS (Three Domains Secure, not Nintendo 3DS) is technically supported but rarely enforced by merchants.

- Cashback is a gimmick used to justify payment fees.

I agree with you. The person you're replying to is too negative about Japan. Like every country, there's parts of technology that are ahead and behind the curve. Japan is indeed lagging in some areas, but in others it's clearly one of the most advanced countries in the world.

> live in the countryside, or have not been to Japan for 10+ years.

I lived in a suburb city near Nagoya from end of 2022 to beginning of 2024. It's not Tokyo, but definitely not an "inaka" either. We got our Aeon Malls and even a Porsche dealer lol.

Okazaki?

Edit: damn, there are many more Porsche center in Aichi than I thought there were. I'll keep this guess, though.

I just realized I haven't used an ATM once this year! Even our sleepy southern Kyushu city now has standard credit card readers on the city trams.

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