I’m writing this post because I’m currently quite confused about direct debit (口座振替)here in Japan. For context, yesterday I was trying to sign up at a gym and the only method they accept is direct debit. The person in charge had me swipe my card on some sort of payment terminal that I had not seen before. After swiping the card I was prompted to enter my PIN number and I entered the same one that I would at any ATM but failed each time. After repeated failures he suggested I try a different bank which has not had issues for the other members (for the record the two banks I tried with are Sony bank and Shinsei bank and some of the banks he mentioned are SMBC, Rakuten, Yucho and Mizuho). When I tried to look more into direct deposit it seems like they are usually used with municipal services, utility companies and banking services I could not find any mention online of using it for a something like a gym membership. Furthermore, most banks I researched have a list of companies they are applicable to use with and those companies fall into the category above. I could also not find any mention of signing up for direct debit using such a machine as it appeared they all needed some sort of request form to be filled out rather than it being done at a payment terminal.
Is there something I have to do on my side to activate my accounts to be able to be used with such a service or is it likely just that the banks I use are not applicable with this. Any advice or guidance on this matter is greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance
by swaggygerbil