RetireJapan

I've been shifting a lot of my banking to Rakuten Bank and I'm now considering which debit card to get.

They offer several flavours of MasterCard and VISA, and I'm wondering if there's any particular merit in choosing one over the other. The basic versions of both seem to offer the same advantages in terms of points.

I suspect it makes little difference, but it would be nice to know.

In my previous life in Canada I had credit cards from both, but that was in a different century…

You're talking about the ATM/Debit combo right? There's practically no difference except in some extreme examples where a merchant only accepts one or the other (I think the Olympics only accepted VISA for tickets as an example).

Do note though that debit cards are treated kind of weird in Japan and I've run into some merchant sites that have refused to take debit cards regardless of it being VISA/MASTER.

You should apply for the Rakuten Credit Card (not to be confused with the Rakuten Bank Credit Card).

Thanks! That's a good point. I was thinking I didn't actually need another credit card, but I guess it would be more flexible.

On balance I've always had the impression that MasterCard is a bit of an outlier in Japan, so I plan to go with VISA as the 'safe' option.