PayPay’s server fell victim to a hacking attack, originating in Brazil, on November 28, 2020. As per the operator of PayPay, a server containing personal and financial information of its entire userbase was compromised. The company acknowledged that configuration flaws led to unauthorized access to information. The service operator was later notified of the incident and preventive measures were taken.

Japanese consumers are historically very privacy-conscious and afraid of identity theft, so it’s no surprise to me that they don’t want to use services like this. Even credit card usage in Japan is extremely low compared to the rest of the world.

Their usual cashless payment methods like Suica/etc. are anonymous and have been in widespread use since the early 2000s, so I predict that will continue to be the preferred payment method (besides cash) for the forseeable future.