Ok this is completely anecdotal but I was in a complete non-descript local bar/joint in Nihonbashi in Tokyo tonight and was intrigued when we settled up the bill. Forever since I have been coming to Japan I have been met by antiquated cash registers and paper invoice processes or modern POS purchase devices almost always Panasonic.
So tonight there’s this square device plugged into an iPad or some tablet and the square peripheral device reads the card’s chip. I’m thinking this is weird - never seen something like this before but it looks square - could it possibly be the SQUARE. I look at the counter and see the “We accept”… whatever credit cards and the whole sign is taken up with the Square logo.
Square POS devices are in Japan! I don’t know how prevalent they are and I will keep a look out but if they have arrived!
Ant