Host club manager Hide Kurosaki dropped the iced coffee he was holding when he learned that the credit-card processor for his establishment had gone under.
“My first thought was, ‘Wait, what — that’s the company we use,’” said Kurosaki, 45, who runs the Century Tokyo Shinjuku in the back alleys of Kabukicho, the city’s red-light district. He feared the club wouldn’t be able to collect card-based payments, which make up around 40% of sales. “How was I going to explain this to the staff?”
The sudden bankruptcy of Zentoshin, an Osaka-based processor of credit payments, has ensnared its clients — mainly bars, clubs and restaurants — as well as the regional banks that backed the firm. Many of the outlets that relied on Zentoshin are now asking customers to pay in cash or with a QR code payment, as they seek to line up another provider. Though the impact is limited, it’s a setback for Japan, which only recently shed its notorious cash-only image.
AloJapan.com