RResidents in Japan

Debit Card/Japanese Payment Card Options

Hello

I have been living in Tokyo for the past 3 months and need a way to pay local merchants that don’t accept my internationally issued VISA/mastercards.

I was going to use PayPay but found out you can only use Japanese issued cards if you choose the top your balance by card option.

Are there any other purely online options in which I could use my international cards as the funds source and execute the payment with a Japanese card?

If not, i guess my only option is to open a Japanese bank account. I’m on a 1 year WHV, however I’m self employed. I read you need to be working here (japanese income) in order to open a bank account. Is this true? Do I have any options outside of this?

Thanks in advance.

6 comments

  2. Make a Japan Post bank (ゆうちょ銀行) account (no limit, even if you a student that came to Japan 3 days ago) or a Seven Bank account (they have nice English service but generally you can’t make an account until living in Japan for 6 months (same as other banks))

    Then link the bank account to a payment method which provides a virtual prepaid card like Line Pay or Kyash, etc.

  3. I was a student when I opened a bank account, so I don’t think you need to be employed. You can try your luck with SMBC as they have VISA debit card. It’s easy to use and accepted on all local vendors that have VISA sign. Be it online of offline vendors I’ve been using it and never have any problem. Just make sure to always have balance.

    For online vendors, sometimes they accept Paypal (Netflix, Disney, etc.) And you can connect your PayPal account to your overseas card or bank account.

    For pufely online options I can only come to think about LINE pay/cards, paypay, or WISE card. You can apply but I’m not sure if it’ll go through and how would it be as I’ve never used with international card

  6. >Are there any other purely online options in which I could use my international cards as the funds source and execute the payment with a Japanese card?

    If you have an iPhone, Mixi M is this option. Top up the Mixi card with your card from home through Apple Pay (it won’t work through the standard credit card top up option), then spend it on Japanese websites using the Mixi card.

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