Visa Japan finally officially signed with a digital wallet platform and it is Google Pay. As expected it comes with a price: no FeliCa support, no dual mode support, nada, just Visa Contactless that is branded as ‘Visa Touch’ in Japan. The press release outlines recent debit cards from Sony Bank (oh the irony), JapanNet Bank, Resona and Mitsubishi UFJ.
Visa offers dual mode plastic cards that have EMV and FeliCa support in one convenient chip package that work in Japan and abroad. However these new plastic and Google Pay cards are limited to the Visa Touch payment network which is slowly growing in Japan but still full of holes. The most useful payment method for these cards will be the reliable old contact one.
Visa Japan’s long term strategy here is to gradually pull out of the FeliCa based iD and QUICPay contactless payment networks and eventually issue everything on their own Visa Touch payment network. Apple Pay FeliCa support will never sit well with Visa Japan, but now with the Google Pay move we know what Apple Pay has to do to host new Visa card products.
Unfortunately Visa has focused on big marketing pushes like the Tokyo Olympics instead of a consistent and focused drive to build contactless payment support and customer awareness that benefits all players. In a payment market already flooded with payment network logos and acceptance marks, Visa Touch is just one more logo that adds to customer confusion. Visa could have been a leader, instead they gave QR Code players a nice big opportunity, a gift that keeps on giving.
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