Fingerprint enhanced credit card likely only to work in Japan

A fingerprint reader-enhanced credit card will only work in a market such as Japan

Japanese consumers are only just becoming comfortable with the use of payment cards. As Arnie Cho explains, it is the only market left likely to adopt the fingerprint reader-enhanced payment card

February 20, 2025

Life Card, Visa, and IDEX Biometrics combine with a neat solution but it will have limited global impact image credit shutterstock

Life Card, a major credit card brand in Japan, has launched a credit card with a built-in fingerprint reader. The launch, a team effort between Life Card, Visa, and IDEX Biometrics, was also the very first introduction of the biometric-enabled smart payment card in the market. The biometric payment card can provide extra security, but such a feature is quite late as the payment environment around the world is moving towards card-not-present transactions.

Introduced around 2017 by Mastercard, the fingerprint-reading feature built into a payment card was certainly a great idea to deter payment card fraud while easing consumers’ security concerns. Many markets around the world have piloted the biometric-enabled payment cards that can read users’ fingerprints. However, most markets did not go beyond the testing phase and eventually scrapped the idea.

While the biometric payment card did not gain adoption in other markets, Japan is actually the perfect market for it, which is why Life Card is launching such a feature on its credit cards. Japan is a market that is very averse or slow to adapt to changes. While markets around the world were moving away from cash to cards, Japanese consumers were still clinging on to cash. Today, when the world is moving away from payment cards towards mobile or biometric payments, Japanese consumers are still stuck using payment cards.

GlobalData Payment Instrument Analytics database

According to GlobalData’s Payment Instrument Analytics database, in terms of the volume of consumer payments between cash and payment cards, cash made up 60.9% in 2024 in Japan, compared to only 17.7% for South Korea. It is estimated that only by 2030 will card use reach over 50% for consumer payment transactions in the country. For neighbouring South Korea, card use for consumer payments will reach almost 90%.

Japanese consumers are still a step behind when it comes to the adoption of the next generation of payment methods. With Japanese consumers only just becoming comfortable with the use of payment cards, this explains why it is the only market left that will adopt the fingerprint reader-enhanced payment card.