App-based digital salary payments are yet to gain traction in Japan two years after being introduced, with only a fraction of workers choosing the option despite the nation slowly trending towards a cashless future.
App-based salary payments sound like an eminently stupid idea.
Good, cash is the most secure form of payment since you can use it without a bank account.
Yes, but banks don’t want you to avoid them. Why is nobody thinking about the poor banks? :(
What apps?
Why wouldn’t this be something that happens between your bank and employer? In finland you simply give your employer the IBAN of a bank account you want your salary paid to. There’s no third party involved in payroll, unless a company outsources their financial management in general.
Sure, my bank has an app, but that’s just one way access my financials.
PayPay’s server fell victim to a hacking attack, originating in Brazil, on November 28, 2020. As per the operator of PayPay, a server containing personal and financial information of its entire userbase was compromised. The company acknowledged that configuration flaws led to unauthorized access to information. The service operator was later notified of the incident and preventive measures were taken.
Japanese consumers are historically very privacy-conscious and afraid of identity theft, so it’s no surprise to me that they don’t want to use services like this. Even credit card usage in Japan is extremely low compared to the rest of the world.
Their usual cashless payment methods like Suica/etc. are anonymous and have been in widespread use since the early 2000s, so I predict that will continue to be the preferred payment method (besides cash) for the forseeable future.
