Asia-Pacific · GDP rank #3
Japan
JP · JPY @ 0.0063/USD
The cashless share climbed from 21% in 2017 to 42.8% in 2024 — METI's 40%-by-2025 target hit a year early. Mobile QR codes (PayPay above all) have absorbed the bulk of incremental growth; cards — particularly credit — still carry the value. JCB retains a meaningful domestic share; Zengin is a 50-year-old rail being incrementally modernised, with Wise becoming the first non-bank to join via direct API in late 2025.
Tab 05
Cross-border
Inbound and outbound remittance corridors, tourism flows, FX markup on retail cross-border, and the country's posture on stablecoin adoption. Corridor figures come from the World Bank RPW feed or the publishing central bank; both are cited when they disagree.
Remittance inflows
USD · 2023
Remittance outflows
USD · 2023
Inbound tourism spend
JPY · 2024
Record-high on 36.9M inbound visitors and weak-yen tailwind; card spend estimated ~55% of total.
Outbound tourism spend
JPY · 2024
Avg. corridor cost
% · Q4 2024
Above G7 average; bank-dominated market with limited low-cost MTO penetration.
Net sender
Top inbound corridors
- United StatesUS$1.1B
via bank
Top outbound corridors
- PhilippinesUS$1.6B
via MTO
- ChinaUS$1.4B
via bank
- VietnamUS$1.3B
via MTO
Cross-border card
Card flow leaving and arriving
Cards issued domestically and used abroad reflect outbound consumer travel and cross-border e-commerce; volume acquired from abroad reflects inbound tourism and foreign online shoppers.
Issued volume spent abroad
JPY/year · 2024
Acquired volume from abroad
JPY/year · 2024
FX cost
What consumers pay above the interbank
Retail FX markup is the spread between the mid-market rate and the rate the consumer receives — the single largest friction point in small-ticket cross-border.
- FX regime
- free-float
- Reference
- JPY free-float since 1973; MoF and BOJ conduct occasional currency intervention at policy discretion
Source · Ministry of Finance Japan
Full reference
Remittances
Net Position: sender
Source: