The biggest pothole on the road to a cashless society has always been coins – those pesky pieces of metal needed to buy the little things, from bubble gum to bus tickets.

But pockets in Japan are getting lighter with the growing use of so-called smart cards. The size of a credit card, they are packed with thin antennas and an encrypted integrated circuit that can be used thousands of times to pay for train fares, meals at restaurants and snacks at convenience stores.

In less than two years, nearly 7 million people in Japan have started using one of two types of cards, both based on technology developed by Sony Corp. So far, the main client for the cards is JR East, the largest railroad company in Japan.

Nearly 6 million train and bus commuters have started using the first of the two types, known as Suica cards, since they were introduced 18 months ago.

Train-riders in Hong Kong and Paris have been using cards with antennas for several years, but Japan is the largest market yet.

Their big selling point is speed. The antenna sends signals to readers at ticket gates, so no card-to-machine contact is needed. The entire transaction takes a fifth of a second, faster than is possible with similar technology introduced by Philips Electronics NV.

"It's a marginal improvement, but our society is wealthy because of millions of these little improvements," said Jeffrey Funk, an associate professor of business at Kobe University who tracks wireless technology.

JR East, which operates in the Tokyo area, spent ¥45 billion ($386 million) to roll out Suica. Its hope is to save money: Fewer coins means fewer security guards to haul them away. The card also cuts down on paper for tickets and on repairs to ticket-vending machines.

Suica, which requires a ¥500 deposit, is essentially a debit card. Riders take the cards to vending machines and add as much money as they want. If the card is lost, the cash cannot be recovered, but there is no need to call a credit-card company to cancel it because it is not linked to an account. JR East plans to add readers to its bullet-train gates and to 500 stores.

For the cards to generate more profit, experts say, credit capability would need to be added to allow shoppers to spend more freely. By and large, though, the Japanese prefer cash over credit: They fear that the government and aggressive marketers could use the cards to track their every purchase, and they like to keep a tight rein on debt.

"With the prepaid cards, I know how much I am spending," said Kotaro Matsuoka, 22, a student. "If there was a credit function, I wouldn't know how much I owe. It's scary."

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