IC cards and you

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Japan is a cash-based society. There is one notable and interesting exception to this, however. While stores will often not accept credit cards, they will sometimes accept integrated circuit (IC) cards, especially if they are in or near a train station.

IC cards are essentially little plastic cards that one loads up with cash, which one then spends later. Their primary purpose is for use on public transportation in Japan since they are accepted in many places and mean that one does not have to calculate the fare (because train fare is a combination of start up fee + distance charge) and buy tickets for every part of the journey.  Instead, one can just wave their card at a card reader and have the appropriate fare deducted from the card.