Japan leads the way in electronic money

• Toru Nashimoto, a trim 36-year-old with nary a coin in the pockets of his slick pinstripe suit, confidently strode toward the cashier at a bustling sushi bar to settle his $45 lunch tab.
• He whipped out a thin electronic card and placed it above a scanner that quickly blinked neon blue before emitting a computerized ka-ching.
• Technology analysts say the use of electronic money amounts to a leap forward in commerce and shopping.
• Using cell phones that transmit infrared signals---or, as in Nashimoto's case, a smart card that doubles as electronic keys and lets him earn airline miles---Japanese consumers are whisking through checkout lines, buying everything from sushi to furniture without yanking out their wallets.
• Users can add value to their cards or cell phones at thousands of automated docking stations around the country, where they insert paper money and get credit for e-cash.
• The Japan Research Institute, an economic research group, estimates at least 15 million people here now use e-cash, a figure projected to reach 40 million---about one in every three Japanese---by 2008.
• The number of e-cash transactions reached 15.8 million per month in 2005, more than double last year's figure, according to Japan's two largest electronic money providers.
• The smart cards and phones used are embedded with antennas and integrated circuit chips that allow the devices to receive and emit electronic signals.
• Even lost wallets are often returned to owners intact.
• So the loss of a card or a cell phone loaded with hundreds of dollars of e-cash represents a comparatively small risk.
• Emoney also banks on consumers willing to pay for purchases in advance, the opposite philosophy of a credit card.
• That means people lug around six values of yen coins to make small purchases.
• The e-cash service exploded after DoCoMo added electronic money transmitters to its latest-generation cell phone last year.