世論 What Japan Thinks

NTT DoCoMo recently published an interesting survey they performed to find out what people thought about mobile phone credit cards. They interviewed 1,800 people from all over Japan in February by means of a web-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 150 people of each sex from each decade of life, from the teens to the sixties, responded. Note that the teens consisted only of 18 and 19 year olds, though.

First, mobile phone credit cards are just what the term implies – they are mobile phones with a credit card’s contactless RFID chip embedded within them, so instead of your traditional bit of plastic, your mobile phone now becomes the device with which you Chip and Pin.

Note that currently credit cards are not as widely used in Japan as they might be in Europe and the USA. In addition, most shops and restaurants that are part of a chain will accept credit cards (although one of my local supermarkets doesn’t), but independent shops on the whole do not accept them. Note the answers to Q5, where over four in five use their credit card once a week or less, and the perhaps slightly loaded answers in Q7 (there is no indication if the question allowed a free answer or just a selection from a list, with perhaps lower-scoring answers omitted from the results) suggesting that plastic is preferred for luxuries or large purchases.

Overall, I think that this survey suggests that people will see mobile credit cards as an extension of the current mobile wallets, so they will treat them as something to use everyday for even the smallest transactions. From the provider’s point of view, small transactions still have a fixed basic fee associated with them, so charging a bottle of cold tea to your phone’s credit card could cost the retailer up half the retail price in transaction fees. How shop owners can cope with this new threat to their profit margins remains to be seen, and would in fact make a good theme for a future survey.

Q1: Do you think you want to use a mobile phone credit card? (Sample size=1,800)

Yes	57.5%
No	42.5%

For those who already used Osaifu Keitai (mobile wallets), 71.2% wanted to use the service. Looking at the detailed breakdown, though, there was little variation by age or sex.

Q2: About how much would the minimum per transaction that you would want to use your mobile credit card be? (Sample size=1,800)

Up to 500 yen	37.6%
500 yen to 1000 yen	18.7%
1000 yen to 3000 yen	17.4%
3000 yen to 5000 yen	8.5%
5000 yen to 10000 yen	9.1%
More than 10000 yen	8.6%

Q3: About how much is the minimum per transaction that you use your current plastic credit card for? (Sample size=1,384)

Up to 500 yen	8.0%
500 yen to 1000 yen	7.4%
1000 yen to 3000 yen	26.2%
3000 yen to 5000 yen	17.2%
5000 yen to 10000 yen	15.9%
More than 10000 yen	22.0 %
Don’t use my credit card	3.4%

Q4: About how often would you want to use your mobile credit card? (Sample size=1,800)

Almost every day	15.2%
Two or three times a week	27.9%
Once a week	24.6%
Two or three times a month	11.6%
Once a month	6.7%
Less than once a month	14.0%

Q5: About how often do you use your current plastic credit card? (Sample size=1,337)

Almost every day	4.8%
Two or three times a week	13.8%
Once a week	24.5%
Two or three times a month	25.7%
Once a month	12.6%
Less than once a month	18.5%

Q6: At what shops would you want to use a mobile credit card? (Sample size=1,800, multiple answer)

Convenience store	74.1%
Supermarket	51.8%
Drugstore	43.5%
Bookshop	42.0%
Department store	39.2%
Family restaurant	34.8%
Railway station shop	33.5%
CD or DVD rental or sales shop	33.5%

Q7: At what shops do you currently use a plastic credit card? (Sample size=1,800, multiple answer)

Department store	68.3%
Internet shopping	53.9%
Electrical store	51.1%
Hotel for settling room charge, etc	39.9%
Supermarket	38.1%
Specialist store	36.7%
High-class restaurant	34.9%
Train or airline ticket counter or vending machine	32.1%

Q8: Do you think mobile credit cards will change society? (Sample size=1,800)

Greatly change society	16.9%
Change society somewhat	59.9%
Not really change society	20.5%
Not change society at all	2.7%

Q9: What specific changes will mobile credit cards bring? (Sample size=1,800, multiple answer)

No waiting at checkouts	38.0%
Shopping will change	36.2%
Mobile phones will become even more important than now	34.7%
Coins will disappear	33.7%
Have to select which shops one can use	29.6%
Number of people whose first card is a mobile will increase	28.3%
Cash will not be necessary	26.8%
Wallets will not be necessary	18.6%

Q10: When do you think wallets will become redundant? (Sample size=1,800)

Within 10 years	35.2%
Within 10 to 20 years	18.4%
Within 20 to 50 years	18.7%
Other/never	27.7%

Looking at the age breakdown in detail, for those up to age 49 about 30% answered “within 10 years” across all four decades of life, but 43.3% in their fifties and 49.0% in their sixties foresaw wallets disappearing within ten years..