日本尚未迎来现金之死

    金融服务研究公司克兰特（Celent）的分析师们称，截止2012年7月，在整个无接触式支付市场上，在日本发行的所有类型的电子货币（存值）卡总值仅为1.79亿美元。当月，在这些卡上共有2.6亿笔交易，即平均每张卡1.5笔交易，交易频率不是很高。

    目前日本究竟有多少人启用电子钱包？这个问题存在一些争议。比如，Eurotechnology Japan公司的技术专家们认为电子钱包大获成功。Eurotechnology的格哈德•法索尔说：“NFC /移动支付和一切相关技术在日本都是巨大的成功，对于所参与的日本企业而言亦是如此。”

    其他调查和分析师们的看法和法索尔相左。“我相信争议之所以存在，关键的问题在于虽然很多用户注册了这个功能，但积极使用该功能的用户很少，”克兰特公司的分析师孔庆顺解释称。“在使用活跃度方面似乎没有可用的统计数据，无论是活跃用户的数量还是交易量。考虑到关于手机的各种各样的其他详细统计数据，这充分表明业内人士并不想宣传电子钱包的低使用率。”

    这些卡大约有20%，即3,700万张电子货币卡，由Osaifu-Keitai（移动电话非接触式支付）注册用户持有。它相当于日本1.26亿只手机的29%、搭载Osaifu-Keitai芯片手机的数量的52%。显然，很多人懒得去给手机充值。用一位受访者的话来说，他们不愿意“为卡充值这件事劳神费力”。

    如何纠正这种冷漠的态度？孔庆顺认为，要提升活跃用户的数量，日本的移动支付服务供应商不仅要在手机上预装Osaifu-Keitai，而且要制定有效推广Osaifu-Keitai的策略。在日本，即便是大额交易，人们也更倾向于用现金而不是信用卡，要让日本人割舍心爱的日元纸币和硬币会非常困难。现在，许多人都开始怀疑，世界其他地方的情况可能也是一样。（财富中文网）

    译者：默默

    According to analysts at financial services specialist Celent, for the overall contactless payments market, the total number of e-money (stored value) cards of all types issued in Japan was worth just $179 million as of July 2012. There were 260 million transactions on these cards in that month, or, a not-very-active average of 1.5 transactions per card issued.

    There is some controversy over just how much switching and swiping is going on with e-wallets in Japan with some pundits, such as tech experts at Eurotechnology Japan, declaring Osaifu a triumph. "NFC/mobile payments and everything around it is a huge success locally inside in Japan and for the Japanese companies involved," claims Eurotechnology's Gerhard Fasol.

    Other surveys and analysts contradict Fasol. "Where I believe the controversy lies, the crux of the issue is that while many users have registered for the function, there appear to be few active users," explains Kyong Sun Kong, an analyst at researcher Celent. "There appear to be no statistics available on active use, either in terms of number of active users , or of transaction volumes. Considering the plethora of detailed statistics on mobile phones, this is a good indication the industry does not want to advertise the low usage rates."

    Approximately 20% of these cards, or 37 million e-money cards, are Osaifu-Keitai (mobile phone contractless payments) registered users. This is equivalent to 29% of the 126 million total mobile phones in Japan and 52% of phones with the Osaifu-Keitai chip embedded. Obviously many are not bothering to load their phones with cash, or more probably go through the "pain of filling the card " for credit as one poll respondent put it.

    How to remedy such indifference? Kong thinks that to increase the number of active users, mobile payments players in Japan should not only preload Osaifu-Keitai in mobile phones but also develop a strategy for promoting Osaifu-Keitai effectively. With cash often taking precedence over even credit cards for large transactions in Japan it will be a hard slog to prize Japanese hands from their beloved yen notes and coins. Many now are beginning to suspect it may be the same elsewhere in the world.