Recently, I’ve been seeing the term “RFID blocking (anti-skimming feature)” more and more often listed as a feature of minimalist wallets.
However, SOLAHANPU wallets deliberately do not include this skimming prevention feature in the wallets themselves. In this article, I’ll discuss our design philosophy, which balances the reality of crime in Japan with the wallet’s practicality as a tool.
The Reality of Skimming Crimes in Japan
First, when looking into credit card fraud in Japan, it’s said that the majority of cases involve “card number theft” (such as phishing scams and data breaches) occurring online.
On the other hand, the proportion of cases involving “skimming”—where cards are physically counterfeited—appears to be quite low overall.In particular, there is a view that the crime method often cited as a cause for concern—where “a device is held up through a bag in a crowded area to steal contactless data as people pass by”—practically never occurs in Japan today (*This is an inference based on various statistics and infrastructure systems; while we cannot say with absolute certainty that it is completely nonexistent, we believe it is an extremely rare occurrence).
In other words, for those living ordinary lives in Japan, the current reality is that the risk of having your data stolen without your knowledge simply by walking outside is not particularly high.
Two Design Reasons for Deliberately Not Including It in the Wallet Itself
Given this situation, SOLAHANPU has chosen not to incorporate anti-skimming features into the wallet’s structure itself for the following two reasons:
1. We prioritize the “convenience” of transit and payment cards above all else
This is the primary reason. If we were to embed a radio-wave-blocking sheet throughout the entire wallet, it would prevent the convenient use of transit IC cards (such as Suica) or contactless payment cards stored in hidden pockets—specifically, the ability to “use them instantly while they’re still inside the wallet.”
We felt that if we focused too much on security, it would undermine the everyday convenience of actions we perform multiple times a day—such as “smoothly passing through ticket gates” and “quickly tapping at the register”—which would defeat the purpose of the wallet as a tool.Since adding new features always comes with this downside—making the product “harder to use”—we must carefully weigh these pros and cons during the design process.
2. Because you can add it later with “just one card” if needed
If contactless skimming crimes were to surge in Japan in the future, or if you were to travel or go on a business trip to a foreign country with different security conditions, simply keeping a single commercially available “thin anti-skimming card” in your wallet would be enough to prevent a certain degree of damage.
You don’t have to go to the trouble of rigidly fixing the wallet’s structure itself; you can take as many countermeasures as you like using external items.
We want to give users the “freedom to choose how they use it”
With the current SOLAHANPU wallet,
・In Japan: Place your transit IC card in the hidden pocket and make contactless payments smartly right from your wallet
• Overseas: Slip a commercially available anti-skimming card inside to protect the entire wallet
In this way, users can freely customize how they use the wallet to suit their own environment.
Our design philosophy at SOLAHANPU is to maintain everyday usability and freedom of choice without overcomplicating the features.
Tenuis Zipper Type (*Formerly Tenuis 3rd Generation) Canvas Version (Scheduled to be brought back soon)
https://solahanpu.com/products/tenuis-zipper-canvas
Tenuis Zipper Type (*Formerly Tenuis 3rd Generation)
https://solahanpu.com/products/tenuis-zipper
Tenuis Flap Type (*Formerly Tenuis 4th Generation)
https://solahanpu.com/products/tenuis-flap
