At least when I lived there, Japan was a heavily cash centric culture. Due in part to the difficulty of getting a credit card and how little benefit there was to having one for day to day consumer interactions (edit to mention that I’m very much simplifying here; I know it’s more nuanced than this). 60% is lower than I would have expected but it has been almost a decade since I lived there. I closed the article once they threw that huge pop up in my face, but I did see that they only mentioned that Japan was an outlier. If you knew anything about Japanese economics and culture, this wouldn’t have been surprising to see. I’m guessing the rest of the article didn’t provide any depth to their visualization.
So far I haven't seen anybody give you the right answer, which is that in most Asian countries, people actually have the money they are spending vs. buying things on credit.
> Robbers do not routinely detect the presence of cash
But the reverse might not be true.
Just because it is not detectable does not mean people who feel unsafe would carry large quantities of cash.
If I was going into a bad neighborhood, I wouldn't carry a lot of cash.
But in japan, I've seen how people behave differently. for example, I saw a lady leave her purse on a restaurant table while she went to the bathroom. This kind of stuff is common in japan - people feel safe and there is little expectation of theft.
