Glitch Disrupts Credit Card Settlements across Japan

Jiji Press

10:15 JST, November 12, 2023

Tokyo (Jiji Press)—A computer system glitch disrupted credit card settlements at retailers and train stations across Japan for a while Saturday afternoon.

The failure occurred at Japan Card Network Co.’s system for financial settlements between credit card companies and member businesses, such as retailers, that accept their cards. Almost all credit card companies in Japan are connected with the system.

The glitch was resolved around 8:52 p.m.

According to Japan Card Network, credit card transactions began to fail around 1:23 p.m. Transactions involving the system are likely to have been mostly halted for about an hour from 5:45 p.m.

The failure affected convenience stores of Seven-Eleven Japan Co., FamilyMart Co. and Lawson Inc. At supermarket and shopping mall giant Aeon Co., some outlets became unable to accept credit cards other than those issued by the Aeon group.

At stations of East Japan Railway Co., or JR East, ticket machines and “Midori no Madoguchi” ticket offices stopped accepting credit card payments around 6 p.m. Central Japan Railway Co., or JR Tokai, also had a similar problem.