Contactless Payments in Japan

Strategic Issues, Key Players, and Market Forecasts

In this market update, ABI Research examines recent activity in Japanese contactless payment markets, particularly focusing on strategic issues, major players, and forecasting.

Compared with other regions, Japan has seen the fastest deployment of contactless transponders and readers. One key reason is its commitment built around FeliCa development and affluent merchants. The Japanese contactless market has been evolving quickly, with competitive market conditions and new market entrants.

This Research Brief is designed to provide readers with a high level understanding of how the Japanese contactless market is evolving. It offers a level of detail and segmentation across environment and applications that makes it useful for focused or advanced contactless payment research, planning, and development efforts.

The report includes market forecasts for shipments and revenue by transponders, readers, and environment from 2006 to 2012. Other highlights include analyses of the current market landscape, The ‘Four Giant’ contactless schemes – iD, Suica, QUICPay, and Edy – and the Common Reader Program which debuted in January, 2007. It profiles of new entrants, especially Pasmo and Nanaco, and evaluates market players’ strategic approaches to developing the Japanese micro-payment market. Finally, it highlights the lessons to be learned from market drivers, discusses Sony’s and bitWallet’s strategies, and more.