Contactless Payment MasterCard PayPass

Hi all,

I need to make a contactless (Tap and Go) payment in Japan. My Australian ME Bank Online Savings Account has a condition that I must make one contactless payment per week to receive their bonus interest rate on my savings.

The card concerned is a debit MasterCard. Everywhere I try to make a contactless payment it will not work. Some Japanese staff seem to indicate contactless payments don't work with MasterCard (PayPass) in Japan. Can anyone clarify this?

I'm in Nozawaonsen at the moment but have previously tried to make contactless payments all over Hokkaido and Tokyo. I will be back in Tokyo in a few days - perhaps someone knows a store in Tokyo that can accept MasterCard contactless payments (PayPass)?

Most likely wont work anywhere if you have already tried. You need to contact your bank to see if the function works internationally.

Just checking on "merchants" for MasterCard Contactless, the following showed up:

http://www.orico.co.jp/creditcard/service/emoney/paypass/shop/
- Ikspiari (near Disney Resort Tokyo)
- Colette Mare (Yokohama)
...both are shopping malls.

If I go to this site and enter (just as an example) search with Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, I only get two results:
https://www.mastercard.co.jp/ja-jp/consumers/features-benefits/contact...
Oriental Bazaar (near SHibuya) and Laox main store (in Akiharaba).

It sounds like they only have a few merchants where many non-locals tend to go., I believe it tells me that contactless payments of major international brands are not yet popular in Japan; here a different system developed earlier, which made the prepaid cards so widely adopted due to their application in commuter cards/transit cards.

mastercard contactless payment system is used very limited in JP.
JP contactless system is based on SONY developed "FeliCa" system widely used for transport and commercial IC cards(Suica, Pasmo, Iccoca, Edy, Nanaco(7-11), WAON(ION) etc).

As far as I know, there are four stores in Tokyo accept mastercard countless payment.
*BICQLO BicCamera Shinjuku east exit store
*LAOX Akihabara Main Store
*Orientalbazaar in Harajuku
*Ikspiari In Tokyo Disney Resorts(most shops accept but not all)

Unless you have some serious coin tied up in your online saver account. Then extra 1.65% which equals about $1.35 AUD per $1000 in the account. I wouldn't go wasting time by searching around the country looking for paypass options.

Hi all,

Thanks for your responses.

I did try the Oriental Bazaar as I was already in Shibuya - they were unfortunately closed.

I emailed ME Bank to advise them of this problem and they agreed to honour the bonus interest regardless.

Thanks for your responses.

I have the same situation with ME Bank. I am in Tokyo at the moment and found that Paypass does work at McDonalds. It took a while for the girls at the counter to accept that it had worked, they kept telling me to put the card in the machine but a manager came over and said that payment had gone through.