Getting a Japanese credit card can be difficult for foreigners living in Japan.  I have been living in Japan for 5 years and have filled out many, many credit card applications and I finally got my first credit card! I really don’t even need a credit card, but the fact ‘they’ would not give me a card drove me crazy. I mean why not!? I trust me!

Coming from America the land where any man or child with a heartbeat can get a credit card (this has changed a little since the world economy collapsed, but not much… blah, blah, blah) I was shocked at how difficult it was to get my money-grubbing hands on a Japanese credit card. After many years of from credit card withdrawal, I started to research what type of people have the right stuff to get that elusive card.  I started making some progress after reading many Japanese blogs and magazines.

The first and most important point is that not all credit card companies in Japan have the same standards for deciding who will get a card and who will not.  I found a list of cards that are easier for both Japanese and us gaijin to obtain. See below.

Life Card
SBI Card
Rakuten Credit Card
Family T Card

Now more important, be VERY careful about completing these certain parts of the application correctly:

1. Your name: sounds easy but it isn’t! Fill your name out in the exact same order as your foreign registration card. Also make sure that name on your bank account is EXACTLY the same as your foreign registration. If the name on your bank account is even slightly different I would highly suggest changing it to reflect your foreign registration. A common problems with foreigners is that your name may be in a different order at different institutions. Usually, the correct order will be as follows:
last name, first name, middle name

2. Get a home phone number: Credit card applications usually have an area for a home number, but many people these days only have a cell phone. This is not bad but it is better to have a “landline”. I am too cheap to buy a landline so I bought a 3 month incoming Japanese phone number from Skype for $12.95. It worked! When the credit card company was researching my application they actually called ALL of my phone numbers, my cell phone, work phone, and then my home (aka Skype) phone number.

3. Housing: Credit applications want to know what type of place you live in. What Japanese credit card companies want to know the most is if you own or rent and who you live with. The best situation, in the opinion of a creditor, is that you live with your parents in a house which your family owns. This is for 2 reasons. They figure you will have more disposable income, and more importantly that you have a smaller chance of running away from your bills. I doubt that there are many foreigners in Japan that live with their parents in a family owned house.

I live in a rented apartment by myself, and this is the worst answer you could possibly give on a credit application. When I thought about this I remembered that the lease for my apartment is actually in my company’s name and they pay the rent (out of my salary) since nobody would rent an apartment to me, heard this one before! (If you haven’t and want to know more about housing, drop a line in the comments and we’ll write a future post on that for you). This situation would be considered a company dorm (社宅）since you are not renting the apartment, your company is. Credit card companies prefer dorms to people renting on their own. If this is not true for you then don’t lie, because Japanese credit card companies will do their homework on you.

Good luck and happy spending!