Australians hate surcharges. So why don’t we move to QR codes?

April 4, 2026 — 6:00am

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Whenever I’ve travelled to Japan, I’ve made sure to carry cash. Why? Because, unlike Australia, Japan is still a country where cash is king: a fact that always seems to rear its head when my pockets are empty, and my stomach is grumbling for a mouth-watering snack from a tiny stall that only takes cash.

Since the early 2000s, Japan has also relied on IC cards – contactless smart cards such as the Suica, PASMO and ICOCA – which you’ll see millions of Japanese people using to tap onto the public transport system and to pay for things from select stores.

Equipped with my credit card, Suica and a bit of cash, I arrived in Japan last month feeling smugly satisfied at my rare display of foresight (long-time readers will remember my misadventures from a trip to the US when I relied solely on card).

But my satisfaction was short-lived. Right across the country, I noticed a new red and white logo, and often a QR code, posted at almost every shopfront in sight. The infiltrator? PayPay.

The name left little mystery as to what this new business did.

But it took a bit of time to figure out exactly how it worked (largely because I ignored it until being forced to scan one at a store which didn’t accept card payments and discovering PayPay could only be used by those with a Japanese phone number).

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When I quizzed people in Japan about why these QR code payments had become so popular, they said it was because it was cheaper for businesses.

That’s probably true. PayPay began in 2018 as a payment service provider, charging no fees in order to attract business. A few years ago, it introduced fees of between 1.6 per cent and 1.98 per cent (still lower than the fees Japanese businesses usually face to accept card payments).

But PayPay also arrived at a time when the Japanese government was trying to make the........

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