JCB vs. American Express vs. Mastercard VISA market share in Japan

Should we accept JCB and American Express in Yen?

[alpine]

Hello,

We've accepted JCB in dollars for years on our US site, but are now launching a Japanese site with prices in Yen.

We will accept Mastercard and Visa in Yen, but wonder if we should go through the trouble of getting a Yen JCB merchant account. Or, for that matter, American Express.

Will it push many customers away if we only take Mastercard and Visa?

[Wasabeez]

As you probably aware, JCB has the largest number of credit card holders in Japan (52 million, as of Aug. 8 2004). This is about the same number of AMEX card holders around the world. Also, the average number of credit cards a Japanese adult holds is 2.4. I think these tell us something.

I don't know how big the trouble is of getting the JCB Yen account opened but there are many other elements to take into account before you decide whether it's a wise move (eg., customer/target profile and their credit card preference, how serious you are about entering the Japanese market etc.)

Good luck.