He can be proud of the legacy he built, which is something many American founders cannot say with a straight face.
Rest in power sir.
I guess it's down to licensing for the FeliCa smart card system or something? I will say, as a privacy person, I'm pretty jealous of the ubiquity of IC card payments there. You can buy the card at a kiosk with zero KYC and top it up with cash at the same kiosk. Since it's a stored-value system, it works offline, and you get the convenience of paying with a card with nearly all of the anonymity of paying with cash.
[0] https://xdaforums.com/t/global-pixel-device-unlock-felica-su...
However, major Japanese cities are increasingly allowing credit card tap to pay for transport, Osaka Metro is already 100% on board and Tokyo has started trials. There's a long tail of minor companies that will likely take forever though.
Also, non-Tokyo transit systems often support VISA tap and pay.
A visitor Suica card (that you can buy at the airport and refill with cash in seconds), a VISA, and cash (that you can get at any ATM with a debit card) is 100% sufficient for travel in Japan.
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The cash part of it is non-negotiable, though. Many merchants are cash-only. Presumably, handling large amounts of cash works fine in a society where the risk of getting robbed at gunpoint is actually zero [1], and where the police are ready to use very persuasive methods to maintain that 99% conviction rate.
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The real frustration is that buying rail tickets online inevitably triggers an extra layer of VISA verification (2fa code through SMS or email), which usually works fine, but has already shat the bed for me once, requiring a chat with my card's CS rep. Which fucking sucks when you don't have a phone # that works.
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[1] While the risk of some cutpurse ganking your wallet is so near-zero, it's a rounding error.
I thought so, too, and perhaps it's just bad luck, but I was at Tokyo Station a few months ago, and I wasn't able to withdraw cash from Mizuho Bank's -- one of the largest retail bank in Japan -- ATM from my US debit card. I ended up walking (getting lost for) ~10 minutes to a Seven Bank ATM, and withdrew cash there without issue. So YMMV.
ATMs from the major banks (SMBC, Mizuho, Yuucho, etc.) are still extremely picky about supporting US cards. Most will do it... for an egregious fee.
Kombini ATMs are better about this, but 7Bank ATMs remain the gold standard with no fees outside of whatever the bank itself charges. LawsonBank is OK, but few/far between. Enet (at a lot of kombinis) are terrible.
Disclaimer: Former Visa, current PayPay employee
Please don't use an obituary to make a nationalist swipe on HN.
They just end up rewarded after doing shady tricks more often. Whereas in any other country being too devious too often is fatal.
I guess the archetypal example on HN would be Microsoft or Oracle.
