“Japan had already invented mobile payments and QR codes in the early 2000s, years before the iPhone even existed.”
QR codes were invented in Japan in 1994, and Japanese mobile carriers integrated QR code scanning and contactless mobile payment systems (such as FeliCa-based payments) into feature phones during the early 2000s, years before the iPhone's 2007 debut.
The claim is factually accurate regarding the timeline of technological adoption; Japan had robust mobile payment and QR code ecosystems on feature phones well before the introduction of the smartphone-centric mobile payment models seen in the West.
Judged as of Oct 14, 2025— the video's publish date
While Japan developed its own domestic QR code payment ecosystem (such as PayPay, Rakuten Pay, and the unified JPQR standard), these systems are based on the globally recognized, open-standard QR code technology (originally invented in Japan by Denso Wave) and have increasingly integrated with inter