Cashless payments in Japan - statistics & facts
Despite significant growth in digital payment usage, cash is still king in Japan. The country is well-known for its technological advancements, but when it comes to digital payments, it lags behind its neighbors and other economies. Digital payments made up 42.8 percent of private consumption expenditure in 2024, surpassing the government’s target of a 40 percent cashless payment ratio by 2025. The slower uptake of alternatives to cash can partly be attributed to risk aversion and a high share of senior consumers. Card-based options remain the most widely used non-cash payment methods but have partly lost share to another increasingly popular payment option in recent years.
