Fast and convenient, mobile payment apps are taking over the world—Japan included. The mobile wallet market is challenging Japanese society’s love of coins and crisp banknotes. In 2018, 25% of smartphone owners had made at least one purchase using their mobile phone, a trend likely to boom in 2019.
But before Japan kneels before a cashless world, it needs a strong guarantee that citizens’ privacy and security aren’t being sacrificed at the altar of convenience.
Luckily, we have the recent 7Pay app fiasco to give us all a good wake-up call that mobile pay isn’t always the savior we need.
7Pay: 3 days, 900 clients hacked, ¥55 million stolen
Launched on July 1, 7-Eleven’s shiny new mobile-wallet app 7-Pay crashed as fast as you can say irrashaimase.
In brief, hackers (but it could just as well have been your technology-challenged grandmother) were able to steal about ¥55 million in payments due to serious security vulnerabilities. The parent company Seven & i Holdings Co. even managed to anger the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (and those guys still use fax) for not following sufficient security guidelines. For a recap of this drama, warm-up some popcorn and read all about it here.
Twitter is very amused
Rumors that 7-Pay users were noticing unexpected transactions on their accounts quickly spread on social media.
「恥ずかしいんだけどおにぎりもらえるから、チャージしてして」
「そうしたら、られちゃったバカだね」
This is embarrassing but I signed up and put some money [on 7-Pay] just to receive a free onigiri. Stupid, isn’t it? By doing this, I got ¥400,000 stolen [from my account]”
This very expensive freebie was then artfully summarized in this illustration tweeted by user @doppelscheisse.
7payをしたがくて面白くて… = This really, really entertaining image perfectly sums the 7-Pay fiasco…
We can almost hear the laughter coming from 7-Eleven’s main competitors, together nicknamed the “Four Heavenly Kings”—a reference to four Buddhist gods—a.k.a. the top four convenience store brands in Japan.
ｾﾌﾞﾝ『グアアアアアア』()
ﾌｧﾐﾏ『セブンペイがやられたか…』
ﾛｰｿﾝ『ﾌﾌﾌ…はコンビニペイのでも…』
ﾐﾆｽﾄｯﾌﾟ『QRのしよ…』
ｾ･ﾌ･ﾛ『ﾐﾆｽﾄｯﾌﾟﾍﾟｲいやん』
= 7-Eleven: “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhh” (*Dies*)
Famima: “Oh… 7-Pay got killed…”
Lawson: “LOLZ… Well, their app was the weakest of the Four Kings’ apps”
Ministop: “Yeah, this is a disgrace to QR payments…”
7-Eleven/Famima/Lawson: “Uh, Ministop you don’t even have a payment app!”
How to use the kanji 最
While we can’t say for sure which convenience store offers the best mobile wallet app, we can definitely label 7-Pay as the weakest. You’ve probably spotted “最” a recurring kanji symbolizing “most” or “extreme” before this tweet.
Time to review a few pairs:
最弱VS = The weakest VS the strongest
VS = The lowest VS the highest
VS = The worst VS the best
VS = The first VS the last
VS = The shortest VS the longest
VS = The latest VS the oldest
Vocabulary
恥ずかしい hazukashii embarrassing おにぎり onigiri rice ball 個 ko counter for small object もらえる moraeru receive から kara because チャージする chaaji suru charge/load/put money (on) 登録する touroku suru register 取られる torareru to be stolen バカ baka stupid 騒動 soudou turmoil, fiasco, disaster 要約 youyaku sum up 画像 gazou image 面白い omoshiroi interesting, funny 死亡 shibou death 四天王 shintennou Four Heavenly Kings 最弱 saijaku weakest 決済 kessai settlement, payment method 面汚し tsurayogoshi disgrace 無い nai there is not
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