Japan’s Digital Struggle: Fax and Cash-Only Stores

Asahi, a ramen restaurant in Tokyo’s Asakusa district, only accepts cash, according to its fifth-generation owner Ryuichi Ueki. Despite the growing popularity of cashless payments worldwide, Ueki prefers to stick with what he knows and avoid credit card fees and digital payment platforms. This preference is typical among Japanese people, who lag behind regional peers such as South Korea and Singapore when it comes to cashless payments. Japan’s love of cash is just one example of the country’s sluggishness when it comes to the digital economy. While Japan is a world leader in high-tech fields such as robotics, many government services still rely on paper forms or a visit to a local office. The country’s dependence on ageing systems is in part due to its success at achieving world-class efficiency using analogue technology, according to Martin Schulz, chief policy economist at IT services firm Fujitsu. Japan’s government has long recognised the need to tackle the country’s digital laggard status, which threatens to undermine efforts to boost productivity and revive the $4.9tn economy. In response, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged to accelerate the country’s digital transition, including by spending $42bn to improve digital infrastructure in regional areas.