Edy-body got some change?

Denshi mane (electronic money) was first used by NTT DoCoMo in Japanese mobiles, Edy (which stands for Euro, Dollar, Yen) is a free electronic pre paid money service that allows you to charge money on your phone or card. This can be used in convenient stores, shops and even vending machines. You can even use your phone when going on the train, instead of using your suica card. That’s the name of the JR Lines metro card, it uses a magnetic strip that you swipe. You can even use it to buy things from vending machines in train stations.

So how does this work? A small magnetic like chip is inserted on the back of a mobile. This chip uses Sony’s FeliCa technology. A small scanning device is placed next to a register, or is attached to a vending machine. All you need to do is scan the bottom of your mobile over the device, and it reads the strip inside.

How does it take your money? You actually have to charge your eddy account. You can do this in several ways. They have small stand alone machines where you can deposit money in and then scan your phone, which adds the money to your account. You can also use your home computer and charge your credit card, but the website only takes certain cards.

Today AU by KDDI and Softbank Mobile also offer this feature and it seems to be doing rather well, although some are better than others. While I was living in Japan I never used mine. The one time I had no cash on me and was really thirsty the convenient store I went into had a broken Edy Machine. I was very disappointed. I do however think this is a very useful tool because I feel this feature will let you even leave your wallet at home. Japanese mobiles seem to play a huge part in life in Japan. It’s almost as if you leave your mobile at home, you leave a part of your life. That’s pretty scary.