Bitcoin Forum

Due to the official adoption of Bitcoin in Japan as a means of payment, the thousands merchants will accept the virtual currency this year. But what the actual facts are?  Whether you can easily pay for goods and services in Japan using Bitcoin?  This helped us to understand BitKan officials. BitKan marketing director Ruby Chen conducted a three-day experiment, which showed how in reality it was possible to use Bitcoin...

Read more here https://bit.news/eng/is-it-possible-to-use-only-bitcoin-in-japan/

No.  There may be a few stores who accept it if you search all over the place, but in practice you just can't.  This is a three-day experiment - what if she had to pay for fuel in her car, or public transport, or even just use pretty much any service, most of which don't accept Bitcoin.

The Japan Bitcoin laws need time to mature and settle with merchants.  The "thousands merchants" that you mentioned don't even accept it yet as far as I'm aware, and even then it won't actually be a lot in the overall scheme of things.

Experiments like this have been done before, with people doing experiments of living on Bitcoin for a week, but that's very hard and if you live outside of a major city you're not even going to be able to eat, let alone live your everyday lives.

Maybe yes in the future, let's say 1-2 years later but not in this year as the article stated : Overall Chen says the trip was successful, but bitcoin is still difficult to use all the time in Japan. Chen hopes that because of Japan's recent legalization law, bitcoin will be easier to use in the region in the near future.
Bitcoin isn't accepted everywhere and still there are some disadvantages to use bitcoin in daily transaction.
However, Japan seems the best country which regulated bitcoin as official payment and a lot of merchants will adopt it, but surely it will grow better over time, and the price already recover to $1200 again.

Only bitcoin is really a hard thing, because Japan as an country that gives importance to digital growth now have focused on digital growth of economic system. As a part they have regulated bitcoin causing a sudden increase of around 20% bitcoin acceptance from the online and offline merchants.

And that is the best part about this, Japan is probably going to lead in bitcoin shopping, that was a great move of their government to encourage people using cryptocurrencies.
Im very glad that Japan is supporting cryptocurrencies growth ( mostly bitcoin of course ) because other countries may take this as an experiment.
If it is going to work good, then we may see even more countries following the steps of Japan to implement bitcoin as a one of a payment methods.

Anyway, nowadays it is not possible to live only with bitcoin in Japan, they support merchants adding this kind of payment, but it will take time to see this method available in most of the shops there.
I assume it will be around 2-3 years if not longer, im sure that not every company is happy about the cryptocurrencies law change in the country of the blooming cherry.

i think its really difficult to use only bitcoin and its not just in japan but in every country as bitcoin is not yet to accepted in many country. we still need fiat to buy something in our offline life. beside that, we still can not use bitcoin in many country to buy something but in future, i am sure that we can use bitcoin in many places. as long as bitcoin is not yet accepting in all country, there will be just a dream to use only bitcoin in one country.

I think it will damage the economic conditions of Japan if they make bitcoin is only payment method. They make bitcoin as another method of payment for digital currency.

This is impossible at this moment in Japan even in 2-3 years are you referring to bitcoin to use as a main currency in Japan instead of fiat money?This will not happen at this point, maybe in online stores but not in most physical stores or businesses.  

Using only Bitcoin in Japan is not possible.  There are already other country that acknowledge Bitcoin as mode of payment.  One of which is the Philippines.  Aside from Japan, Bitcoin is used in the Philippines through a third party processor in paying Bills and other online services.  This only signifies that Bitcoin is not Japan exlusive usage.

There is no doubt they are not going to make the bitcoin only payment method, it is obvious that the JPY will stay.
Bitcoin might be used as another way to pay for groceries, bills and in different shops but they won't replace their currency because:

1) They just started recommending bitcoin as a payment method for merchants in the country
2)It is fairly a fresh event in there, but im sure many people have already used btc in there.
3) Implementing bitcoin as a currency for everyday use would be very hard for now- we would need many new solutions to improve speed of blockchain, and to lower the fees on every transaction.

As of now, you can't use bitcoin only in Japan because they are still in the beta testing period where they just testing what will be the impact of bitcoin in their country and especially to their economy. If bitcoin will be successful in their country then it will become another national currency and it will be accepted nationwide and after that you can use bitcoin only just like their traditional currency.

In terms of law and other kind of regulations, it will need time to adapt bitcoin for mass use in Japan, considering that majority of people find it complicated.

i don't think people can live on bitcoin "only" today. maybe someday in the future when price is more stable though. because the price fluctuation may seem good to those who have invested in bitcoin and see it as such but when you want to use it as a currency, obviously you would like it more to have an stable price.

i should add that this is the first step towards that day though. and i am very excited about this news.

You can actually use only bitcoin in Japan.

All you need to do is sell some of your bitcoin in exchange for yen, and spend your yen in Japan.

That can be done in any country mate. The OP is talking about using Bitcoin without converting it to fiat. And that is quite not possible at present.
The government is friendly towards Bitcoin market but I think economically it'll affect Japan because the fluctuations in the Bitcoin market is high and a sudden dump will make it bad for Japan.

The most easy method to using Bitcoin to survive in Japan would be to have Bitcoin transferred to Yen or another type of Currency. That method allows anyone with Bitcoin to survive not only at a place like Japan though they could survive at other places as well.

I think that Vialaia was trying to ask if there was any possibility if someone could just use Bitcoin to survive in Japan. I am pretty sure that there isn't that much Bitcoin accepting stores within the Japan area so it'll be pretty tough though possible.

I saw the experintal video about the person only rely on bitcoin for 72 hours, it is really cool but to survive totally only based on bitcoin still not the time yet, maybe in few years later after more shop accepting bitcoin then it will be possible, I can see that  Japan is going to be the first country that you can survive only by bitcoin

Japan is smart. They will not fully rely on bitcoin itself. Bitcoin reliance is a very risky thing to do. Based from the bill they passed last April 1 (correct me if i am wrong), they did not fully legalize bitcoin as a currency in Japan, they just accept bitcoin as a method of payment.

When it comes to the possibility of only using bitcoin in Japan, it is possible but very  unlikely.

See as of now it ain't possible.
Even though bitcoin has gained a lot of acceptance,
And ask a huge amount of users.
Many still may not know about it yet.
Such a situation can occur not now,
But I think a decade from now,
We can see bitcoin as the king currency,
All over the world.

With Japan Officially recognizing Bitcoin now people have to fill in their verification details if you are depositing a huge amount and i even heard that you need to hand over a video verification which is really serious about how they are looking to monitor every users and have a record regarding that and with the Olympics coming to Japan it will be a huge thing for the tourist to use bitcoin rather than converting to fiat to use which is really good.

Bitcoin is still in the experiment process in Japan and we cannot expect it to go full blast within a week. It will take a long time for everyone to adjust and adapt to the new technology in payment. But it will not take a very long way for Japan since they are very well identified with technology and they are very technical in terms of computer, smartphones and applications. The most important thing is that they have started to move with bitcoin and it is only the beginning.

Therefore, from the experiment conducted on Japan about payment on bitcoin, we can conclude that it is being improved month by month as she said it. I think it is really inconvenient to wait for the bitcoin to be sent, saying that people will be really turning to fiat if these continues. I think, if bitcoin was successfully used on Japan, it will hit hard on every countries and will be doing the same, Japan is really an advanced country, I think we are now closing to the virtual reality. ;D

Just like I said before, Japanese people loves technology and look how they embrace bitcoin and considered it legal in their. However, with that said, it will take a while for the Japanese population to use only bitcoin in their country.

We have to remember that Japan has an aging population, meaning there are more elderly folks living as compare to the younger generation. So I think this will also contribute that its not possible to use only bitcoin because the elderly would still prefer to transact with fiat only.

I do not know how the Japanese accept anything new in their everyday lives, but if they are not stick with their paper fiat money in the distant future will use their bitcoins at an increasing rate while their fiat money too. Japan is a technologically advanced country and if the use of credit/debit cards and web banking is widely used, there is no reason not for them to use bitcoin instead of their cards.

Yes i think japan adop bitcoin and some of my friends there they said that some merchant are accepting bitcoin. If government of japan support bitcoin in there country maybe they use bitcoin to all merchant and store.

Is everything should be concluded in just a three day trial?
I dont think that sums it all.

It is still on early stage and Japan just adopted bitcoin recently. Which means it is still too early to that also. It is just an experiment and we cant conclude everything just with that.
There will be a lot more to happen when merchants starts to advertise their products with "bitcoin acceptedk in their slogan.

many of us would love that, and it is always a good option specially if Japan is a foreign country and you want to go there. if spending bitcoin becomes possible everywhere same as spending fiat you wouldn't have to exchange your money at all you just use bitcoin.

but since we are still in early stages, it takes time until we reach that widespread adoption of bitcoin over there and hopefully eventually in other countries too.

It will surely take time to just use bitcoin in Japan without having any fiat in your pocket and that is a great trip or adventure when we go there. We just need smartphone, our backpacks and internet connection and after that we can enjoy the beautiful country of Japan with just using bitcoin 8).

but i think their government also still not consider bitcoin as legal currency. but just like other countries their people are using bitcoin for different purposes.

I think it's so amazing to use only bitcoin in japan planet  ;D , but it's too hard. as the japanese yen is the main currency there. By the way, with using bitcoin, people can pay easy with there smartphone, Restaurents bills or electricity or anything else, As i am fun for anime and manga, I like to buy some manga with bitcoin. It's really awesome. The only fact is some childs under 18 years old, can buy illegal things there without any control.

As a cryptocurrency it is possible to use only Bitcoin in japan.  All the merchant to do is block or do not accept any other cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.  But as a sole currency, I can say no.  Japan have already an established currency, implementing bitcoin as a currency alone will certainly have a negative effect in their economy.

This would not be possible, not only inq Japan but elsewhere either. At the moment no economy on the world could survive only on Bitcoin, this would mean the end of it. No matter how Japan is developed and progressive some things are still not ready to be implemented.

Doesn't even surprise me at this point, Japan definitely seems like a country that is very innovative when it comes to new technology and has no fears of implementing it at the business level.

I personally probably won't really do much in Japan, ever, and I sure won't move there, but it's cool to see some of the things happening around the world with the community.

I'll sit down and read more of the article later, but it's alway interesting to see little tidbits of information like this.

I think its 100% that japan will only use bitcoin as their currency.. they are just the same as other country bitcoin are internet needed and do you think they can deal to someone if they can not use their own bitcoin offline..
Their own currency will be still their majority of use.. because bitcoin are just good for alternative use online payment not in local payment processor.

this is an issue that could hold back the uptake of bitcoin, transaction fees and confirmation times!

it took approximately 24 hours for me to receive 0.0005btc [$0.61c] it was sent yesterday I didnt
receive it into my wallet until today.

There are going to be a mixture of transaction values from a $4 Bottle of water and a sandwich to
$60 worth of petrol for instance.

How is that going to work?

Just because it is legal doesn't mean that you'll be able to make purchases all over Japan with just bitcoin.

BitKan has recently released a video of a woman using bitcoin in Japan, and the results aren't that good.

But I hope that the results will become better in the future years, because right now bitcoin is still young. It still needs time to develop even in a country like Japan that has recognised bitcoin as a legal currency.

I think maybe yes it is possible to use only
bitcoin in the future but for now I think it is
impossible that the only currency of japan
is bitcoin.

this video just came out a few days ago... I think it's totally relevant
Living on bitcoin in Tokyo. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfJG6iVeRfI)

Right now, definitely a big no no.

Even though Japan has formally recognized bitcoin as an established, legitimate and legal currency to be used by everyone in Japan, it still unfortunately does not have much status in most of Japan.

You can't expect to walk even in the CBD area of Japan and find more than 5 bitcoin accepting restuarants or shops.

Hopefully this will change though.

yes there is a possibility that bitcoin will replace fiat in Japan but it takes a decade they need to make fully adopted bitcoin and make physical paper/coin money to used by all people specially those people who can not access bitcoin online.

bitcoin is good (in japan) :

- for the next olympic  games
- to drain the bond collapse of saving people (they buy gold instead ... but, then, they can buy bitcoins, too !)