Originally Posted by
Life_Platinum
It was continued to be denied at JR and at locations where we tried to charge more than $100 at a pop during our two weeks in Japan.
It could also be due to the fact that more and more places in Japan, as with the rest of the world EXCEPT the US, are phasing out the mag-stripe and moving to EMV chip cards. Mag-stripes are ancient 1950s technology by today's standards which is becoming less useful around the world, especially considering that the skimming devices to steal your credit card info can be bought by anyone for less than $100 worth of parts on eBay.
Next time, prepare yourself by getting a card that has the EMV chip feature built in:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...signature.html
I suggest the Andrews FCU Globetrek Rewards Chip-and-PIN card. $0 annual fee, 1% forex rate, true Chip-and-PIN, and earns rewards.