My preferred credit card in Japan, and why

A dead giveaway - it's the first card i applied for, it's the company whose customer support i called, it's the company whose image is in the header. My preferred credit card is the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Premium credit card.

If you want to apply for it and want to try your luck online, feel free to use my referral link, which will give you 45,000 points instead of 30,000 if you spend JPY300,000 within the first 3 months.

If you do use my referral link, i'd recommend doing it the following way (and if you haven't already, catch up on why i suggest doing it this way here)

1. Apply from the link. Make sure all your text inputs (name, address, company name, etc) match your residence card exactly.
2. If you get rejected, find the card you're looking for from their hotline list and call the number. For the Marriott Bonvoy Amex cards, its 0120-085109.
3. Ask for English support. Tell them you had difficulty applying online and would like some help.
4. Pray.

On to the details.

About the Marriott Bonvoy American Express credit cards

Marriott and Amex dropped this collab in 2022, before i moved to Japan and before i thought of or cared about either of those things. I'm thankful they did, because i think going from a 4mpd (airline miles per dollar) credit card in Singapore to a 0.5% cashback card here would give me fits.

The cards

Marriott and Amex launched 2 credit cards, the

1. Marriott Bonvoy® American Express® Card

and the

2. Marriott Bonvoy® American Express® Premium Card

The broad strokes when it comes to differences are listed below.

The regular card...

• charges a cheaper annual fee (JPY21,000 per year then, JPY23,100 now)
• offers a 10,000 point welcome bonus
• grants complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Silver Elite status, which is bumped to gold if you stay 25 nights at Marriott properties or spend JPY1M in a calendar year
• gives 2 Marriott points (or 4 points, at Marriott properties) per JPY100 spent

The premium card...

• charges a higher annual fee (JPY45,000 per year back then, JPY49,500 now)
• offers a 30,000 point welcome bonus
• grants complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status, which is bumped to platinum if you stay 50 nights at Marriott properties or spend JPY4M in a calendar year
• and 3 Marriott points (or 6 points, at Marriott properties) per JPY100 spent.

Both cards also offer access to airport lounges and travel insurance.

In short, for a difference of JPY26,400 a year, you get 20,000 more welcome bonus points, Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status, and 1 extra point per JPY100 spent.

Why the premium card makes more sense (to me)

I will admit that me writing all this reeks of privilege. I recognise i'm in a position to obtain and make the most of this credit card, and that many people are not in that same position. If you're in Japan, and this card doesn't make financial sense for you, you shouldn't feel the need to try and maximise your dollars in that way. Financial security is much more valuable than gamifying points.

If you are in a position to apply for the card, however, and are wondering why get premium instead of regular, here's my reasoning.

1. The added 1 point per JPY100 spent adds up quick. I spend anywhere between JPY200,000 to JPY500,000 each month on my card. That's 24,000 to 60,000 additional points a year.
2. The welcome bonus points are much higher. Assuming you spend JPY200,000 per month, you'll need to spend for 10 months to match the additional 20,000 welcome bonus points you get from the premium card.
3. I travel for work, and stay at Marriott hotels when i do. I get additional Marriott perks due to the status, and additional points when i pay for the hotel using my Amex card.

I concluded that paying an additional JPY26,400 annual fee is worth that value.

The rewards system, pros and cons

I say "rewards system" but deep down i'm a miles chaser and am focused on miles.

There is still great value to be had in redeeming nights, especially for high-end stays at places like the Ritz Carlton, where you can either pay JPY240,000, or 130,000 points for a night. Each point here is worth 2 yen, equal to a 6% return on your spend (spending JPY100 gets you 3 points. Each point is worth 2 yen. 3 multiplied by 2 returns 6%. I want to say quick math, but this actually took me a very long time to sort out in my head.)

But, personally i value flying business class and having a bed to lie down on for a 15 hour flight to, say, New York, more than i do getting a 6% return on a hotel stay.

A little story - i've flown to New York twice in my life.

The first time i sat premium economy. The flight was 17 hours but felt like 30, my back and neck were sore, and i was so disoriented i left my passport on the plane.

The second time i sat business. I lay down shortly after take off and the next thing i knew we were landing. Nothing in my body hurt. Also, not saying there's any correlation, but I did not forget my passport this time.

So with that said, here's a quick run-through of the basics.

3 Marriott Bonvoy points are worth 1 airline mile. If you exchange 60,000 points to miles at a go, Marriott (or Amex) throws in an additional 5,000 miles, for a total of 25,000 airline miles.

So the normal rate is JPY100 : 1 mile, or JPY100 : 1.25 miles when exchanging in 60,000 point blocks.

The pros

First, you can get 1.25 miles per JPY100. How is this a pro, you ask? This rate is an entry level credit card in Singapore, you say? To that i say - firstly i'm not in Singapore, and secondly... it's not nothing. Patrick Mckenzie has a newsletter called Bits About Money, where he writes, here and here, that Japanese financial institutions effectively settled, collectively (or collusively - you decide), on a maximum rewards market rate of 1%.

I died a little bit inside when i read this.

But anyhow, at 1 mile per JPY100, this credit card is essentially top of the line. With the 25% Marriott conversion bonus, we now have something that vaguely resembles non-Japanese financial incentives, which feels like a huge win in my book.

Second, Marriott points essentially never expire. Strictly speaking, Marriott points expire after 24 months of inactivity. But! Credit card spend on a co-brand credit card (like the Marriott Bonvoy Amex card) counts as qualifying activity. The points earned from being billed for your credit card spend each month will renew the 24 months, making this deadline a non-factor if you continue using the card.

Third, there is a lot of flexibility in redeeming your miles. Marriott has an extensive airline partner list that isn't tied to a single airline program, which opens up a lot of possibilities when it comes to redeeming flights.

For example, i could redeem a one-way economy ticket on SQ to Europe at 60,000 krisflyer miles... or redeem a return business class ticket on JAL at 60,000 JAL points. Both cost 180,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

Managing to capture the opportunity is a different story altogether - in my early testing i've found it next to impossible to find seats (one day i'll figure it out) - but at least the opportunity exists.

Fourth, the exclusion list is surprisingly small. Broadly speaking, when spending on the Amex card, you can't earn points from TV broadcasting fees, some e-money top-ups, donations to certain organisations, or administrative fees related to the card. Everything else is fair game.

This means

1. you can earn points from paying taxes (although, this doesn't include income taxes since that's withheld from your paycheck)
2. ... and bills
3. ... and insurance
4. ...and donations (like furusato nouzei purchases. Learn more about it here.)

The fine print is that you earn points at a reduced rate of 2 or 3 points per JPY200 instead of the usual JPY100, and the list of taxes you can earn points on is exhaustive. But still, this was surprising to me because most credit cards have a comprehensive list of categories you cannot earn points from, that usually includes all 4 categories mentioned above.

The cons

Of course, there are some annoyances. These aren't deal breakers by any measure (to me, anyway), but are still things to be aware of.

One, the only digital wallet that supports Amex is Apple pay. If you have an Android phone, too bad. You'll have to use your physical card for contactless payments. While i get the logic behind the decision - apple has the largest market share in Japan - it still feels kind of egregious, in this day and age, that a major credit card provider like Amex is only supported by a single mobile OS.

In the larger scheme of things though, this isn't as bad as you might think. Many shops will still ask you to insert your card to scan the IC chip rather than tap to pay. Some of them might not even know their card reader has contactless functionality. Many of them legitimately do not have that functionality and can only accommodate a IC chip credit card payment. Even with Apple pay, odds are you'd still have to keep your physical card handy at all times.

Two, Amex doesn't work with most major e-payment apps. I did a bit of arbitrary research and it looks like there are several main players in the e-payment / e-wallet space. Of these, only 1 (one) accepts Amex. One other allows you to charge the e-wallet, but not pay directly, with Amex. The rest do not accept the card.

• Paypay - does not accept Amex
• Line pay - does not accept Amex
• Rakuten pay - accepts Amex, but doesn't seem to be as widely adopted by merchants as Paypay or Line pay
• Mercari pay - i couldn't test this one because i couldn't sign up (they sent me a verification code. I input said verification code. App responded that verification code is wrong. **very Dave Chappelle voice** Huh?) But their website seems to indicate they do not accept credit cards.
• Au pay - accepts Amex, but only to charge value in the wallet

This clearly limits your ability to use your Amex at, say, the local mom-and-pop store selling 1,000 yen set lunches. They might not know how a credit card works, but thanks to very aggressive posturing and infinite Softbank funding they are likely to have a Paypay QR code. Because this scenario is more common than one would imagine in a major metropolis, your payments toolbox necessarily needs to include other non-Amex credit cards, or the old-fashioned time-tested tried-and-true method, cash.

In summary

The Marriott Bonvoy American Express premium credit card is the closest approximate to home. It's not quite like home - at home we have a competitive credit card ecosystem and more robust rewards tiering - but it gets by, by being the most versatile and best rewards card (admittedly measured against a low bar) you can get in Japan.

Given the low bar when it comes to credit card rewards, there isn't much strategy needed to optimise your rewards. I just charge everything to my Amex card, use my SMBC Prestia gold visa where Amex isn't accepted, and use cash as a last resort.

If you were considering applying for the card, hopefully this adds some colour to your decision.

If you already use the card and noticed i missed something, let me know at contact@passengertokyo.com!