When vetoing the use of cash during its six months, the Osaka Kansai 2025 expo marks a milestone in universal fairs and carries out an unprecedented experiment in a country prone to earthquakes and tsunamis and accustomed to keeping at home, next to the provisions, the helmet and the flashlight, a reasonable amount in tickets of 10,000 yen (somewhat more than 57 euros). Since April 13, more than 180 pavilions from countries, international organizations and companies, exhibit science, technology, culture, customs and gastronomy for thousands of visitors. If assistance forecasts are completed, until October 13, some 28 million people will have bought a stuffed animal from the Expo, a craft beer or will have paid in Spain the already famous menu of “17+2 tapas and skewers” with electronic money. The announcement that Oska's expo would be Cashless (without tickets) and that he would assume “the challenge of accelerating the transition of a society Without cash ”produced great stir in an archipelago located at the intersection of four tectonic plates considered one of the areas with the most seismic activity in the world. The electricity cuts, such as the one in the Peninsula of Noto on January 1, 2024, after an devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale, they are a reminder of the risk of relying on virtual banking, automatic, financial applications or any other payment system that works with electricity. Give envelopes with cash to congratulate the newlyweds or the students who graduate from the university. At the beginning of funerals, the relatives of the deceased receive envelopes with tickets whose amount varies according to the degree of closeness with the dead. Another factor is the reluctance of the elderly to digital payments with electronic devices subject to endless innovations. The Japanese government has been able to catch up on conscious monetary digitalization, not only of the rapid adoption of electronic money in neighboring countries such as China and South Korea, but also of the reduction of infrastructure costs related to the use of cash, the improvement of commercial efforts and the shortage of labor suffered by the most aging country on the planet. In 2018, three years before the pandemic Distance purchases, Japan began to promote virtual payments with a program called Vision Cashless (vision without cash). He then set a «rate of use of digital payments» and set out to reach 40% by 2025. In fact, last year the payments without cash in Japan was 42.8%, according to a recent report by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce. The same document explains, without specifying a date, that the new objective for exchanges without physical currency will be 80%. The Bank of Japan for its part, has put on its agenda the proposal of a digital currency of the Central Bank (CBDC). This agency has been consultations with private companies for two years and the government for a pilot program in this area.
Advantages
Among the advantages cited by the organizers of the Osaka Expo are the simplification of the payment for visitors, the reduction of time at the ATMs and the lower risk of virus infection, in addition to a reduction in crime prevention measures and the cash management time. Kansai, the region where Osaka is located, is famous for the commercial mood of its inhabitants, its caution in the expenditure of each Yen and its «cash obsession.» According to the Sankei newspaper, the Expo challenge will be to convince Kansai's people that the commissions of the companies that manage the payments are not excessive. Correspondent letters
