In Japan, digital payments are slowly on the rise. Now, there are a number of prepaid virtual cards and popular cashless payment apps available for use across Japan.
Prepaid Cards in Japan
There are three main types of prepaid cards in Japan:
- Single-use prepaid cards: These cards are pre-loaded and disposable (e.g., gift cards). You can buy them at convenience stores and drugstores.
- Rechargeable prepaid cards: You can recharge and reuse IC cards like Suica and Pasmo. Purchase them at self-service ticket machines in major train and subway stations.
- Prepaid physical and virtual cards: Use virtual prepaid cards via apps or apply for a physical card through provider websites, often for a set fee.
How to Get a Prepaid Card
Some prepaid cards in Japan require identity verification, where you may need to submit photos of personal identification documents via the app. You can obtain some instantly without ID, making them accessible to minors and those without official residency.
- Convenience Stores and Retailers: Prepaid cards (Vandle, WebMoney, Vanilla Gift) are available at 7-Eleven, Lawson, FamilyMart, and electronics stores. For most, no ID is required.
- Online Applications (Virtual & Physical Cards): Apply via apps or websites (Rakuten, EPOS, au PAY, d Card, etc.). Some require ID verification.
- Mobile Carrier Prepaid Cards – Exclusive to SoftBank, AU and Docomo users (SoftBank Visa Prepaid, au PAY Card). Apply through carrier apps.
- Financial Institution Prepaid Cards: Banks and credit companies (Mitsui Sumitomo, JAL Global Wallet, ANA Mileage Club) provide these cards. Some require ID.
- Prepaid Cards for Tourists: Buy Welcome Suica or similar tourist-friendly prepaid cards at Haneda and Narita Aiport. No reisgistration needed.
Popular Prepaid Cards in Japan
| Card Name | Card Type | Pros | Cons |
| au PAY (formerly au Wallet) | Mastercard | A full refund is available in case of unauthorized use. Can charge at participating convenience stores (Lawson and Seven-Eleven). | Non-Au mobile members need to create an Au ID. |
| WebMoney | It can be used immediately after downloading the app. | You need a physical card for in-store purchases and no point accumulation. | |
| d Card | Accumulate points with a good rate of return. Can charge at participating convenience stores (Lawson and Seven-Eleven). | Only participating stores offer higher point returns. | |
| JAL Global Wallet | It can be used overseas and can accommodate 15 different currencies. | Cannot charge the card with cash. | |
| Rakuten | JCB | Offers 1% cashback on purchases, and you can use Rakuten points to charge the card. | A Rakuten bank account is required. |
| ANA Mileage Club | Bonus points are available depending on how much you use in the year. | ANA airline miles cannot be used to charge the card. | |
| Mitsui Sumitomo | Visa | You can receive notifications when you exceed your budget limitations. | Slow point accumulation if you try to use non-Mitsui Sumitomo credit cards to charge your prepaid card. |
| SoftBank | Can use PayPay points to charge the card. | Limited to SoftBank users. | |
| EPOS | You can easily check your balance and usage details. | Touch payments are not supported. | |
| Kyash | Compatible with Apple and Google Pay. It can be used overseas to make online purchases. | A physical card costs ¥900. | |
| Vandle | It can be used on the same day you download the app. | You need a physical card for in-store purchases and no point accumulation. | |
| Vanilla Gift | It can be used anywhere VISA cards are accepted. | No point accumulation. | |
| V-preca | Can download the app and use the virtual card immediately. You can also charge it at convenience stores. | Limited to online purchases. |
The Takeaway
Prepaid cards are convenient for making your daily purchases. Here are some reasons for getting one:
- Budgeting: You can spend a limited amount of money loaded onto the card.
- Security: You don’t need to link prepaid cards to your personal bank accounts.
- Separating accounts: You can use them to make business purchases separate from your personal accounts.
- No age limits: Credit cards typically require users to be over 18. Prepaid cards have no age restrictions.
- No credit checks: Credit card companies require background and credit checks. Prepaid cards do not.
- Lighter wallet: You can carry less cash and coins.
Prepaid cards are gradually becoming more popular in Japan. Why not reap some of their benefits and check out the best-prepaid cards in Japan?
Have you used a prepaid card in Japan? What were your experiences? Leave your comments below!
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The Vanilla cards are now being discontinued. Maybe you should update your article, and provide more alternatives. The Vanilla card was great, and I’m doing research now to find another way to get online buying ability.
The vanilla cards are still available on convenience stores, I am confused about them, cuz I have read that those are accepted everywhere in U.S, probably some rules have changed. However do you have any suggestion for a new pre-paid card.
The old Vanilla cards are no longer available as of this week but there is a new one available. You do not have to register for the new card, but you do have to be able to receive a text (at a Japanese cell number) to activate it for online shopping use.
Hello Kristi,
Is this a new version of the vanilla card?
Yes, it’s a new version. You can no longer combine them together unfortunately.
Thanks for the heads up on this. I’ve been looking for a replacement pre-paid debit card and none have been as easy to use as these in USA or Japan. Sad to see them go but will keep my eye out for the new cards, seems like a simple updating of their method hopefully.
is there any of this that might work in nike,com.jp?
Anyone try using prepaid visa card to use for PayPal? I tried AU WALLET but no luck, PayPal don’t accept it?
Will the Vanilla prepaid card work with iTunes?
Is there anything I can use on Amazon (USA)? I dont have a working debit card or credit card, my card was frauded so Im cardless at the ATM. I only have a stupid japanese cash card.
I would also recommend getting the ponta pre-paid Visa card at Lawson. You can charge up to 100,000 a month and get 1% cash back on purchases. Also ANA offers a prepaid card you can get miles with and can be charged up to 300,000, but the online application Is pretty complicated and you have to have an insurance card issued by your company.
can we use it in paypal??
I know this reply a bit late but, I tried using AU WALLET didn’t work ?
Can you use the Rakuten Pre-paid card on the Rakuten Global Market?
20000 yen card are gone for all eternity, their limit used to be 100k which was great, at least for me, only 5000 yen cards are available now, no more 20k or 10k. The limit for the 5k cards is 30k I think which is basically nothing, it’s very sad.
Hi, Is it possible to put money from your vanilla card on your paypal account ?
Thanks
Hallo, Cynthia.
Thanks for the information! Its very helpful, here in Japan we can easily get lost!
I bought some five tausend yens Vanilla-Cards and want to know if I can add more registered credit cards to get the amount of a flight ticket. “JDSelma” answered this a year ago and get no replies.
Thanks!
Hallo, Cynthia.
Do you know if I can use multiples VISA Vanilla Online credit card to purchase just one item?
Now in Japan we can just sum 30.000 yens per card and I don’t know if we can sum the amounts of these multiples cards.
Hope you can help me, thanks!
So, I went to the konbini to get a vanilla card to pay for a purchase I made online, but they only had one left so I ended up getting an American Express Giftcard as well, thinking that it should work similarly.. Well, long story short; I have now been sitting here for the last hour trying to figure how in the world I can use it online and I am slowly beginning to wonder if it in fact only works as a physical card and not for online usage. In other words; HELP! Does anyone know if (and if so; How) to register the card somewhere and how to then be able to use it to pay for stuff online?
I’m glad I’m not alone they got me too in America I would bought American Express gift cards sometimes and they work like a credit card so simple. In Japan they can only be used at department stores but not all department stores in only a select few, but that did not stop them from charging me 1,190 yen for 1,000 yen same and the visa next to it. BUT IT IS OLNY A GIFT CARD.
Right? And I assumed that because it’s American Express then you should be able to use it where they accept AMEX, but nope. Everytime I ask, all I get is “No, sorry!”. So now I’m sitting here with a 5000 yen card that I can’t use because I can’t find anywhere that accepts it..
still available in my areas and i just used it for amazon us
I bought it a few weeks back at Donki (20000 and 10000 yen), but then when I went back a few days later, all the Vanilla cards were gone.. Since then I have only seen the Vanilla-cards for 5000 yen, but no higher than that anywhere else.. Really sucks, because they were really convinient..
um.. hello i just move to japan and bought a vanilla gift card, and i cant seem to find any website that accept this damn card, could you help?
I think they discontinued this because I noticed that all the cards suddenly disappeared from the stores one day.
Hello! I’m planning to buy on ebay and i don’t have a credit card but i bought an amex prepaid card, can I use it via paypal? And how?
I do have a basic free paypal. Thanks >~< or can you tell me what prepaid cards can i use in paypal? Thanks.
Does this also work for foreigners NOT in Japan? I’ve been trying to buy from Rakuten and 7netshopping but my Visa card wasn’t accepted and Paypal isn’t listed as a payment option. So I’d be really interested, if there is a way to complete these purchases.
Yahoo Wallet won’t accept my credit card. So there goes one major payment option.And as I can’t log onto Yahoo.jp using a Yahoo.com account, I guess that using Yahoo.com Wallet to fill up my Yahoo.jp Wallet won’t do either, right?
So basically my “targeted” payment options, I’d like to use are:
– Yahoo!ウォレット and Yahoo!かんたん決
and some way to shop at
– 7netshopping (aka 7Eleven, 電子マネー「nanaco」)
– Rakuten (maybe something like a prepaid card)
Yes, there are services like buyee etc that will bid for you etc but they take a crap load of money for that and while you already need to pay for international shipping costs and possibly a forwarding service, you’d have to have a money-growing tree in order to always use that.
So is there any way to use the above mentioned options with a foreign Visa credit card and/or PayPal and/or any other for foreigners outside of Japan accessible payment option (at this point I don’t even care anymore if it’s buying a gift card with a gift card with a prepaid card with a gift card with Paypal…)?
same here, I use the 20000 cards, and in nagano nowhere to be found. Kinda a pain and slightly more expensive, but I have to buy 4x 5000yen cards to do the same thing as one 20000 card
I wonder if the 10.000 yen Rakuten card will cost me 10.000 yen or more?
For the Rakuten pre-paid card, I wonder if a 10.000 card yen will cost me 10.000 yen or more?
went to 6 familymarts and cannot find 20,000yen vanilla card (only saw 5000yen gift card). do they discontinued the product?
anyway how to use rakuten prepaid credit card? i checked their website and it seems that it requires to have rakuten card. does it have any annual fee to get it? will love it if you make the tutorial to get rakuten mastercard
Please, which one of the online prepaid credit cards sold in Japan (VISA
or MasterCard related like Vanilla) would be useful for me. I need it
because I need to pay a remittance service offered by a Canadian
company. Please I need any help
It is similar, once bought such a card has vanillia 10,490 yen .and that just has to be exhausted! How do your rechargerr for? explanations of
http://vanilla-online.jp/ are not clear ??
have to go to a convenience store (ie: seven / 11) to charge on an ATM terminal? really i don’t know ?? it’s Same Before system with E-card visa of UFJ?
Careful because the cards vanillia 22,890 yen, are very hard to find!
I made 5 – 7/11 and in each of them, they had only cards and 5,290 yen 10,490 yen!
For black card, a 22,890 yen I do not know where to go to get it ??
Finally in these 5 – 7/11 The staff is not even able to answer you!
He does not know these 3 Vanillia card payments! While it is neither more nor less than the E-card, of it a few months ago that I used to do my shopping on the net!
Hello can you make a tutorial on how to register the Rakuten pre-paid card thanks✌️✌️✌️
I have a similar issue as the Vanilla Visa question below, but with a Rakuten prepaid gift card I bought at a convenience store. I have registered the ¥5,000 card online with Rakuten so I can see my points now. But when I click the option to use my points to buy something and proceed to next stage, Rakuten keeps telling me there is an error – that credit card details must be filled in. I thought the whole point is that you don’t need a credit card for these prepaid gift cards. Or do you? Am I doing something wrong? Appreciate any help as it is driving me bonkers!
Hi I wish to buy an online flight ticket, is it possible to add cards to get the amount? Like 3 cards making one total amount? Thanks
I recently bought a Vanilla Visa card to shop online. To complete the transaction, the website is asking for the card’s expiration date and 4-digit code which Vanilla Visa cards don’t have. Has anyone ever come across this problem? What did you do?
You need to login to the Vanilla website and that’s where you will see the expiry and security code. http://vanilla-online.jp/
Oh, never mind. I’ve figured it out. Thank you for your help though 🙂
Thank you. I think I found the tab but it says “情報を確認されたいカードの｢確認｣ボタンを押してください。
現在利用登録いただいているカードはありません。情報を確認されたいカードの｢確認｣ボタンを押してください。
現在利用登録いただいているカードはありません。
By any chance, would you happen to know what this means?? All I got was “please click the button”. What button it is I haven’t got a clue. 🙁
hi can you guys help me out i bought a jcb prepaid card but whenever i type the card number on paypal skrill or any merchants options online the card number seems to be invalid please help me
It only works in certain shops and online shops. Paypal is not supported. https://www.jcb.co.jp/life/jcb_premo/pop/riyou_tenpo.html
I am having the same problem and the phone number only works when i am at work
Bestbuy accepts foreign orders has anyone tried buying something back in the States with one of these cards?
Has anyone tried using a prepaid credit card bought in Japan while traveling abroad? I’m taking a group of exchange students to the US next month and some mothers were worried about sending them over with cash only.
i want to shop some stuff online the company is china based
they say they would accept
credit cards payment（VISA,MASTERCARD,JCB) and Western Union,Bank Transfer…
so in this case would the Rakuten prepaid Master card work ?
But these cards actually don’t work because they don’t support billing addresses. I want to buy some software, but most of the times I need a correct billing address… Which none of these cards ask for when you register them.
I actually prefer to use the Amazon (and other!) gift-card method of online shopping even back home in the USA – I can pay cash for the cards and the whole transaction is much more secure,..