In Japanese society, there are more opportunities to receive a credit card than most other societies. If you live in Japan, you will be surprised by how often you are recommended to create a new credit card when making purchases at stores. They will offer you benefits such as getting extra discounts; earning points like miles, and receiving special services with the requirement of making a new card. Some thrift shoppers use several credit cards at different stores and occasions.
Getting approval for a credit card in Japan is not very difficult. Many students apply for credit cards and are quickly approved. As long as they are over 18 years old and have some amount of regular income, typically equalling to 10 hours of part-time work.
You may have heard that Japanese people use cash rather than credit or debit cards. While that may be true, Japanese actually have as many credit cards as Americans do. Research shows that there are 258 million credit cards currently issued in Japan. This means that every Japanese adult has approximately 2.5 credit cards, which is very close to how many Americans have per person (2.6 credit cards).
