世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1] [part 2]

DIMSDRIVE carried out a survey at the start of December to find people’s views regarding electronic money. They interviewed by means of an internet-based questionnaire 6,430 people from all over Japan, 2,736 (42.6%) male, all members of their monitor group.

In the second half of this survey, most of the users seem to be doing small transactions, and are attracted mainly to the speed, and as noted previously, convenience stores and railway kiosks are the most popular locations, so that suggests the main users are perhaps commuters are the regular users, darting in and out for a newspaper and an energy drink on the way to work. For those who haave not used electronic money, the main issue (other than the inability to perform transactions due to not having had the opportunity nor the hardware) seems to be education of the consumer.

Q9: About how much do you usually spend at one time when using electronic money? (Sample size=2,572, those who currently use or have used electronic money)

Less than 300 yen	21.9%
300 yen to 499 yen	20.3%
500 yen to 999 yen	24.4%
1000 yen to 1999 yen	12.0%
2000 yen to 2999 yen	4.6%
3000 yen or over	7.9%
Don’t know	8.9%

Looking at the age breakdown, the significant outliers were in the men over 50, who were over twice as likely to spend over 3000 yen per transaction and about a third as likely to spend up to 300 yen. Women over 50 similarly has a low percentage of under 300 yen purchases but without a similar significantly raised price range percentage.

Q10: Why to you choose to use electronic money? (Sample size=2,572, those who currently use or have used electronic money, multiple answer)

Because I can complete the purchase rapidly	28.3%
Because it’s a feature of my card or mobile phone	24.4%
Because I don’t want a pocketful of change	20.3%
Because I get privileges such as points or a discount	18.0%
Because I can get milage	15.4%
Because I don’t want to carry cash	11.5%
Because it’s a topic of conversation	6.3%
Because it looks smart	5.8%
Because I saw it on an advert, etc	3.6%
Because my friends are using it	2.3%
Other	15.7%
Don’t know or no particular reason	13.5%

Q11: Do you think electronic money is convenient? (Sample size=2,572, those who currently use or have used electronic money)

Really convenient	21.7%
Quite convenient	56.6%
Not sure	16.0%
Not very convenient	4.4%
Totally inconvenient	1.3%

Looking at the age breakdown, for both men and women, those 50 or over who think electronic money is really convenient is significantly more than those in their forties, and in fact for women, the highest “really convenient” score is this oldest age group. Perhaps there is something attractive about not having to scrabble for change when you reach that certain age?

Q12: Why have you never used electronic money? (Sample size=3,759, multiple answer)

Because I’ve never had the chance	44.3%
Because I don’t have a device that supports it	34.8%
Because I’ve never needed to use it	32.1%
Because I’m uneasy about security or personal information issues	26.0%
Because I don’t know much about the whole business of electronic money	20.8%
Because there’s far too few or no places I can use it	18.2%
Because it’s a pain to add credit to the account	18.0%
Other	2.2%
No particular reason	9.3%

Next, the following paragraph was read by all respondents:

Electronics money is…

Data regarding an amount of money is written to an IC card or mobile phone, then this money data is used by a payment system in place of real cash.

• The IC card, mobile phone or internet money box is topped up with money via cash or credit cards, etc.
• You pay by just touching the reader with your IC card or mobile phone.
• On the internet, just enter an ID or serial number, etc to pay.
• When the electronic money gets low, it can be topped up and used again.
• If you lose your IC card or mobile phone, you can’t get the electronic money back.
• If you lose your IC card or mobile phone, you can’t cancel the payment functionality, and stored cash may get used up.

Q13: Which of the following features of electronic money are attactive to you?(Sample size=6,430, multiple answer)

You can do a payment in just a second	64.2%
There are privileges such as points, miles or discounts, etc	54.6%
You can use it for small purchases too	48.0%
You can’t use more cash than has been saved on the card	39.1%
Till receipt shows remaining cash and points saved	34.1%
Saved points can be exchanged for elextronic money	33.5%
You can get points from shops on your mobile phone	17.1%
Digital signatures and encryption is used as measures against copying and fraud	14.2%
There is also electronic money for anonymous purchases and immediate use	7.4%
Other	0.7%
Nothing in particular	10.4%

Q14: Do you think you’ll use, or continue to use, electronic money in the future? (Sample size=6,430)

	All	Have used N=2,572	Haven’t used N=3,858
I want to (continue to) use	20.6%	40.9%	7.2%
I perhaps want to (continue to) use	32.7%	37.4%	29.6%
Not sure which	28.5%	16.4%	36.6%
I perhaps don’t want to (continue to) use	11.1%	4.2%	15.4%
I don’t want to (continue to) use	7.1%	1.1%	11.2%

As might be predicted, the older one gets the less likely they are to want to use electronic money.

Q15: Where would it be good to be able to use electronic money? (Sample size=6,430, free answer)

Rank	Location	Votes
1	Supermarket	700
2	Convenience store	446
3	Public transport	427
4	Vending machine	251
5	All shops, everywhere	222
6	Hospital or health facilities	216
7	Book shop	176
8	Restaurant	142
9	Petrol station	90
10	Department store	79

[part 1] [part 2]