In 2024 i wrote a post about what credit card i applied for, and why. Spoiler alert, its the Marriott Bonvoy Amex Premium card.

Some things have changed since then.

Here's the main section of an email i got from Amex back in August - you don't need to know Japanese to know what this means.

The card's annual fee is now more expensive. Precisely, its 67% more expensive. Its now JPY82,500, up from JPY49,500.

And i've received questions since then! Is the card still worth getting?

Like all difficult things to deal with, i took the path of least resistance. I procrastinated.

If i don't acknowledge how how it affects me, maybe it doesn't affect me at all.

But eventually the anxiety of having a JPY82,500 charge pop up one day on my statement outweighed my laziness, so here i am.

The tl;dr? You're not going to like it. The answer is, it depends.

Here's my take.

What's changing

When i received the email from Amex, the title was "年会費およびサービス改定のご案内" (Essentially, "notice of annual fee and service changes"). No company has ever sent such an email and said "we've made too much money so we'll charge you less"

So clearly, one of two things was happening - inflation or shrinkflation.

The rundown, from Amex's page:

For fees,

• Annual fee increasing from JPY49,500 to JPY82,500 (67% increase)
• First sub-card is still free
• 2nd sub-card increasing from JPY 24,750 to JPY41,250 (also a 67% increase)
• New fee is applicable to your first annual charge after Nov-2025

For benefits,

• Between Oct-2025 to Oct-2026, spend JPY1.5M in a year on the card to get a free night redeemable at Marriott hotels
• After Oct-2026, the spend requirement increases to JPY4M
• The free night is now worth 75k points, up from 50k before. This means you can redeem more premium hotels / room types with the free night
• Annual spend requirement to obtain Marriott Bonvoy Platinum status increasing from JPY4M to JPY5M
• Introduction of a pocket concierge service - book restaurants through Amex and receive a 20% cashback on your bill (up to JPY5,000 per half year)
• Reduction of points from spending on taxes and public services, from 2 points/ JPY2oo to 1 point/JPY200
  • Inclusion of highway tolls and petrol to this reduced points category
• No more points from business transactions (i assume this is determined by Amex's merchant category code)

Is it worth it (for me)?

My interpretation of the above is, I have to pay more, and spend more...

...to earn less points, and maintain the same benefits i had before.

Inflation AND shrinkflation.

The pocket concierge is a net new introduction, but is also a sneaky way for Amex to drive their affiliate dollars since partners are likely paying them to appear in this list.

The increased redemption value of my free night is nice though, and opens up redemption options beyond just the bare basic rooms.

Ultimately, there were 2 questions i had to answer (and probably you too)

1. Without adjusting anything about my spending habits, does my card's annual spend hit JPY5M?
2. Do i value the card's benefits at, at least, JPY82,500/year?

So i did the math. I'm sensitive about how i spend money, so there's no way my regular day-to-day spending exceeds JPY5M. But if i include my business trip spending... and furusato nouzei purchases... and annual tax payments... (which you can pay by credit card and does count towards your spend limit)...

then yes, i meet condition (1).

For (2), this is a bit more subjective. But personally, here's what i considered.

First - and most importantly - i recognise i'm in a position of privilege. I get the chance to even consider this a choice. If you have this card and, for whatever reason, see the additional JPY33,000 you have to pay and feel an existential sense of dread - in the literal sense - you should probably cancel the card immediately.

Second - and second most importantly - I'm not in Singapore anymore. I know that Singapore's entry-level credit cards offer 1.2-1.4 miles per dollar. I know the annual fee for those cards is a fraction of the Amex card's. I know those annual fees can be waived. But, everything i know about annual fees from that life is not applicable here and shouldn't be used for comparison.

Now that i've level-set, here's the thing. This card earns 1.25 miles per dollar, for any airline on Marriott's network, a rate and flexibility i can't find anywhere else in Japan. I also stay at Marriott hotels all the time when i travel for work. My last trip they upgraded my room, gave me lounge access, free breakfast, late checkout, and bonus points for the stay. And you know what? Good service is intoxicating.

I ultimately concluded the card is still worth it for my situation, despite the increased annual fee. The benefits are simply better than any existing Japanese offering out there (as far as i know - if you know otherwise, do share), and i'm in a position to take advantage of most of the card's rewards that i care about.

That said... feel free to bookmark this and ask me about it again in March, after i'm actually charged the annual fee.

As an added bonus...

This is completely unrelated to the annual fee, but i received a separate email from Amex at the end of September.

Again, you probably don't need to know Japanese to infer what this means.

In my previous credit card post i wrote that Amex only supported Apple pay in Japan. Well, this has now been rectified. One small step for Amex, one giant leap for Japan's consumer financial services landscape.

I immediately added my card to Google pay as soon as i read that email. I felt a sliver of pleasure when i tapped my phone to pay for the first time.

This probably isn't a game changer when considering whether to keep the card or not, but its a nice bit of reduced friction in my day-to-day life.

Conclusion

At the heart of this, the only question you really need to ask yourself about this card is - can you spend JPY5M on it every year? Because if you can, the increased fee is a moot point. I don't really see a world you can spend five million yen (million, with 6 zeros) on the card but can't afford JPY33,000 (3 zeros) more.

And if you can't, this probably isn't the card for you.

More broadly the changes feel indicative of a change in Japan's financial environment. This is the first annual fee increase since 2022, when the card was launched, and this increase is by 67%. Amex is clearly seeing significant demand here.

A (not so) fun fact i'd point out - according to chatGPT, who is a better statistician than i, is that median wage in Japan is JPY4M. This doesn't even hit the card's minimum spend threshold.

p80 (or 80th percentile) is JPY7-8M, and p90 (90th percentile) is >JPY10M. Realistically speaking, only the top 10-20% wage earners in Japan (with maybe some exceptions) can afford this card.

The implication? I can still afford the card (for now), but if the trend holds, i'd better start looking for alternatives.