, commonly known as or simply , is a Japanese

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

company affiliated to

Mizuho Financial Group The , known from 2000 to 2003 as Mizuho Holdings and abbreviated as MHFG or simply Mizuho, is a Japanese banking holding company headquartered in the Ōtemachi district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The group was formed in 2000-2002 by merger of Dai- ...

. Founded in 1951, Credit Saison is the 3rd largest credit card issuer with over 20 million cardholders in Japan, behind JCB and Visa Japan.

History

Credit Saison was founded in 1946 as by Torajiro Okamoto. It was originally an operator of

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

s specialized in installment selling. Seibu Retailing Group, one of the (now former) subsidiaries of

Seibu Railway is a conglomerate based in Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan, with principal business areas in railways, tourism, and real estate. Seibu Railway's operations are concentrated in northwest Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture; the name "Seibu" is an abbrevi ...

, purchased Midoriya in 1976, attempting to add financial services to its portfolio of customer services. Midoriya's retailing division was transferred to

Seibu Department Stores is a Japanese depato, department store. The first store to trade under the name opened its doors in 1949. Seibu is typical of Japanese department stores with a wide variety of stores doing business on several floors. The company is now a subsid ...

, and Midoriya itself was renamed retaining the

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...

management division. Seibu Railway spun off Seibu Retailing in 1983 and Seibu Retailing was rebranded as Saison Group. Seibu Credit issued the first Saison Card in 1983. Seibu Credit finally rebranded itself as Credit Saison in 1989, standing as one of the ''Big Five'' core businesses of Saison Group. Following the collapse of the

Japanese asset price bubble The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. In early 1992, this price bubble burst and the country's economy stagnated. The bubble was characterized by rapid acceler ...

in the 1990s, Saison Group fell into financial difficulties. The group's longtime president Seiji Tsutsumi was expelled from management in 1991. The group's creditors including Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and

Industrial Bank of Japan Industrial Bank of Japan, Limited (IBJ), based in Tokyo, Japan, was one of the largest banks in the world during the latter half of the 20th century. It was established in 1902 as a policy institution or "special bank", similarly as Nippon Kan ...

(now part of Mizuho Financial) pressed the group to restructure its business. Credit Saison parted from other retailers of Saison Group, and formed an alliance with Mizuho in early 2000s.

Saison Card

Credit Saison issues credit cards branded Visa, Mastercard, JCB, or

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

. For their history, many cards are used by customers of former Seibu Railway group companies and Seibu Retailing Group companies including

, Seiyu, Parco, and

MUJI , or is a Japanese retailer which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji's design philosophy is minimalist, and it places an emphasis on recycling, reducing production and packaging waste, and a no-logo or "no-brand" policy. ...

Sogo & Seibu is a Japanese retail company that operates two major department store brands: Sogo, and Seibu. As of 2025, the company operates four Seibu-branded department stores, two Seibu-branded shopping centers, and four Sogo-branded department stores ac ...

was acquired by Seven & I and left the group, but Credit Saison and Seven & I founded a joint company and issued Saison Card. As a Mizuho financial group company,

Mizuho Bank is the integrated retail and corporate banking unit of Mizuho Financial Group (; ). It is one of the largest financial services company in Japan with total assets of approximately $1.9 trillion USD in 2023, and considered one of Japan's three ...

and many other banks issue cashcard/Saison Card joint card. Credi Saison also has issues for many other non-group companies. Annual fees of Saison Card are free for normal cards, 1,575 yen to 3,150 yen for some cards, and 10,500 yen or more for gold or platinum cards.

Volume of new contracts

As of March 30, 2006: * Credit card-related shopping services: ¥ 2,527,808 million JPY * Agency services: ¥ 747,998 million JPY * Cash advances: ¥ 618,921 million JPY * Specialty loans: ¥ 120,117 million JPY * Leases: ¥ 90,011 million JPY

References

*
Annual Report 2006
'. Credit Saison Co., Ltd. 2006-03-31. *
Fact Book 2006
'. Credit Saison Co., Ltd. 2006-03-31.

External links

*
Prepaid Card Vanilla info
{{Nikkei 225 Financial services companies based in Tokyo Credit cards Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies in the Nikkei 225 Financial services companies established in 1946 Japanese companies established in 1946 Fuyo Group