Von der Bargeldgesellschaft zur bargeldlosen – struktureller Wandel durch Initiativen der Gesetzgebung

Abstract

Cashless Payments are becoming more and more important and in numerous countries the percentage of cashless payments is growing. The Japanese government has recognized this and has taken first steps to initiate such a development in Japan.

For this reason the Japanese payment culture which is a cash culture is analyzed first in this article. After that the motives of the government to initiate the change to a cashless society are analyzed. Against this background the measures of the government to facilitate the change are illustrated. The focus of this article is a tax refund system which supports cashless payments. A first breakdown of the results of that system which was in place from October 2019 to July 2020 shows a positive trend. However, the long-term impact on the Japanese payment culture is still unclear. For this reason, it seems sensible to take further steps towards a cashless society. Measures like more information about electronical payments or the regulation of cash are analyzed as alternative steps to a cashless society. The legal framework of a digital currency is already being discussed as an alternative measure by the Japanese government. Therefore, the illustrated tax refund system seems to be just one step of many on the way to a cashless society.