Japan
Cashless Payment Growth Slowed by Ageing Population
Population
Japan had an estimated population of 126,476,461 as of the middle of 2020, according to UN data. Based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest UN data, the country had a population of 126,226,271 in 2021, with 91.8% living in urban areas, mainly in Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka. The median age of the population was 48.4 years.
E-commerce
The average annual revenue per paying user was $1,666 in 2019, according to the PPRO APAC Report. Most cross-border e-commerce purchases by Japanese were of products from China, the United States and South Korea.
Payment preferences
Most Japanese shoppers prefer to pay by card (68%), followed by cash, bank transfers, e-wallets, and other payment methods. For cashless payments, the biggest players were local schemes (52%) followed by Visa and Mastercard, according to the 2020 PPRO APAC Report.
Economy
According to IMF data, Japan had a gross domestic product of $5.08 trillion in 2019, which declined to $4.91 trillion in 2020 due to the pandemic. As the economy continues to recover, the GDP is expected to expand to about $5.1 trillion in 2021.
Internet & mobile phone trends
According to Statista, 99% of the population aged 20 to 29 had internet access in 2019, while only 58% of those aged 50 years and above went online regularly. According to Datareportal, there were 1117.4 million internet users in January 2021, with an internet penetration rate of 93%. Meanwhile, smartphone penetration stood at 55% by the end of 2019, according to the PPRO APAC Report.
Banking
According to data compiled by PPRO APAC, 98% of Japanese had bank accounts in 2020, with 68% of them credit card holders.