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 ¡ª 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 ¡ª mainly bars, clubs and restaurants ¡ª 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.
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