No. It uses its own smart card. https://www.tripadvisor.com.my/ShowTopic-g2...ure_Kyushu.html

Oh I see. Thanks for info. What a bummer since I won't be able to use it elsewhere in Japan.

Yeah but luckily Nagasaki tram has daily unlimited, I will grab that. Minimizes spending... No choice lo.

guys, wanna check whether is this bigpay widely used in Japan? i.e. osaka n kyoto ? normally it is used in shopping malls only ?

BigPay is just like any credit card.

As long as the merchant accept Mastercard, u can use BigPay

How's the acceptance of credit cards in Japan? When I went in 2015, I didn't find Japan is a credit cards friendly country. Only those big merchants can use and most of the time I still had to pay with cash.

Has the situation improved these days? I'm a CC person and dislike bringing plenty of cash around.

For this, I think Seoul is better.

For my trip, I am planning to bring sufficient cash to cover my estimated expenses while there. At there I would try my luck to pay CC whereever possible (which if accepted then its a bonus for me). For ground arrangements per day (minus hotel), I think 7~8,000 yen is good enough to cover everything?

I will only exchange some Yen from Malaysia and withdraw the rest using BigPay in Japan or spend using BP as it gives superb rate. I'm giving myself 10k yen per day, can be stretched to 15k yen if really necessary (I try not to lol).

I really miss my Europe trip when I spent entirely everything with CC, not a single cent of cash was used.

This post has been edited by fruitie: Sep 21 2019, 08:20 PM

cash is still king in japan
i bring mostly cash

as for the rate, if u have changed yen like 5 months ago, that rate vs BP rate is like sky and earth

5 months ago I haven't decided to go to Japan yet.

Ya, need to carry a lot of coins (500 yen & below).
Example buy a melon bun cost 358 yen incl. tax need some times to dig out the exact amount of coins.

i think if u change 3 months ago, the rate is still quite a big gap
the rate just suddenly rose up


what to do...most places in japan still accept cash only
except big department store like bic camera
other than that...still cash all the way

seoul on the other hand is mostly card..which is why BP is famous in SK

This post has been edited by MR_alien: Sep 22 2019, 08:54 AM

Not even 3 months ago. Only decided recently.

BP is MY product, why is it famous in South Korea? Anyway, I use it all the time regardless where I am or I travel to.

I think even MY is better than JP when it comes to cashless society.

what i meant is famously being used by malaysian in SK since it bypasses bank(surcharge)

problem with MY is that we have too many cashless wallet...which is bad in a few ways as well
i typically don't use E-wallet in malaysia due to those reasons

Well, I only use those famous ones. If possible I won't use cash for my spending, regardless whether it's e-wallet or credit cards.

Anyway, mixed feedback, I asked in CC section and they said Japan is pretty OK these days and somebody just came back from Tokyo last few days and hardly used cash. What I knew is food and transportation are difficult to avoid from using cash. Let's see when I'm there. I will prepare sufficient cash in my card to withdraw and use my CC whenever possible.

How does it work? Are we expected to give exact change when buying something with lower value?

They will change for you.

No la. Shops will change for you. There was once when I was in Tokyo and wanted coins for luggage locker but I didn't have, so went to nearby stall to buy candy and gave 1k note, no unpleasant look given to me.

In cities yes, improved. Vast majority of hotels, restaurants, taxi, larger shops etc all accept card nowadays ... but smaller shops and eateries still tend to be cash only.

In outskirts, not so much. Up until last year my ski trip accommodation ryokan / inn don't accept credit card and I need to pay them cash

Luckily my accommodation all booked via Agoda so will be settled, else another big chunk of cash needs to be prepared for accommodations.