Here is a slightly whimsical response, but FWIW:
Why have a phone/provider *wallet* when your
telecom provider is, in effect, the only *bank* left
in the country?
The scenario goes like this:
Ongoing NASDAQ/DOW declines push the
Japanese stock markets further into the drink.
(Dow 36,000 was last year's pipe dream. This
year's cold reality could be Dow 3600.) The
Nikkei crashes into the four-figure territory.
This pulls all major banks in Japan under water,
if they aren't already - they have to write off
major losses on their stock holdings. The
recent flurry of bank mergers having been,
according the colder analyses, not about
building shareholder value but about trying
to become "too big to fail."
What if it turns out that the banks have
to fail anyway?
The government steps in and nationalizes all
banks. But then under operates them under
what umbrella? Well, the biggest pool of Japan's
famously high citizen savings is already under
government supervision: the postal savings
accounts.
This is also the biggest single pool of money
anywhere on the planet, if I'm not mistaken.
But that's the Post Office, you say; what does
that have to do with telecom, much less DoCoMo?
Well, the Post Office is under the Ministry of
Posts and *Telecommunications* for one thing.
For another, the Finance Ministry (or what
*was* the Finance Ministry - supposedly
broken up, but they also said that about NTT)
*still* owns 42% of NTT, and has virtual controlling
interest through all its other connections anyway.
Nationalizing NTT along with the banks makes
it a clean sweep.
And of course, DoCoMo is an NTT subsidiary.
Getting this all linked up is, of course, a tall
order. But it could be done. It would probably
be a good idea to redenominate the currency
around the same time; get rid of all those trailing
zeroes, like the Italians are doing with the Euro,
and pull in all that cash that's currently stuffed
in safes and mattresses.
And there you have it: the Bank of Nippon
Telephone and Telegraph. Available; only
through your iMode phone, so Don't Leave Home
Without It.
Remember, you heard this TOTALLY SICK,
WACKO idea here first. (Unless you're
Ben Miller, in which case you heard it
two weeks ago.)
-m
leap@gol.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Vitriol <vitriol08@hotmail.com>
To: <keitai-l@appelsiini.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2001 8:18 PM
Subject: (keitai-l) e-Wallets on i-Mode
>
> Hi All,
>
> Still pursuing my reflection on the methods of payments available to
i-Mode users, I was wondering if there are any e-wallet schemes on i-Mode.
Please, let me know if the following hypothesis is totally ludicrous and
which part of it does exist on i-Mode:
.....
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Sat Mar 17 18:39:57 2001