• Toshiaki Shoji Assistant Professor, Faculty of Economics, Seikei University

• Sawako Shirahase TCJS Director

This paper uses credit card transaction data and examines the impact of Japan’s point reward program for cashless payments. The main findings are as follows. First, the program increased the payment amount by 48-64 percent and the number of card users by 16-18 percent. Second, these impacts persisted even during the COVID-19 outbreak in April and May 2020 and after the program (in July 2020). Third, the program had larger impacts on firms that introduced payment machines after the program started than those already had payment machines.