What a difference a year of Apple Pay Japan makes.
I went to the local Docomo shop yesterday to help a friend move his au iPhone 6 to a Docomo iPhone 7. It took about an hour because he had to download au points to his au Wallet Prepaid card before switching the phone number to the Docomo SIM but all in all it was a smooth process.
The real eye-opener for me was that when he signed up for the Docomo dCard Mastercard appeared to be the only option. 2 years ago VISA and Mastercard dCards existed side by side. Not anymore. Docomo has gone all in with Mastercard branding. VISA is still available if you want it but is ‘not recommended’. The reason is Apple Pay.
It’s very simple. Docomo wants dCard to ‘just work’ on Apple Pay and on Docomo branded Android ‘Osaifu Keitai’ without limits both in Japan and abroad. VISA does not allow this. Mastercard does. I guess VISA thinks Docomo is dispensable even though Docomo pioneered feature phone contactless payments.
JCB has already seen healthy subscriber growth since Apple Pay launched in Japan simply because JCB, along with Mastercard is doing a better job taking care of Japanese customers. Instead of taking care of customers VISA seems more interested in playing market politics to sideline FeliCa payment networks in favor of EMV contactless.
Good luck with that.
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