Chinese e-pay tools spur Japan tourism

After living in China for years, one of the habits I have developed is not carrying a purse around.

Online payment services such as Alipay are now so popular in China that I, like most of my friends and even my parents, barely carry any cash while shopping, no matter if I am visiting a supermarket for groceries or dropping by a cafe for a latte, or even tipping a waiter in a hotel.

So, one day during my vacation in Japan in October, like always I got out of the hotel taking nothing but my cell phone. Only after the taxi I rode on drove for some two kilometers did I notice that I don't have cash to pay for the ride.