Wikipedia
Nanaco (trademarked as nanaco) is a prepaid cash-rechargeable contactless electronic money card used at Seven & I Holdings-owned stores in Japan, which are 7-Eleven convenience stores, Denny's restaurants, and Ito-Yokado merchandise stores. In addition, Nanaco can be used at more than 7,000 stores outside the company's group, especially those that are JCM affiliated shops.
Supplied by IY Card Service Co., Ltd. (later renamed Seven Card Service Co., Ltd.), a subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd., Nanaco is available as Nanaco card (plastic card) and Nanaco mobile ( Osaifu-Keitai application for mobile phones with embedded contactless chip). The Nanaco format also features a postpay function (on the QUICPay scheme), which was made available to IY Card (since renamed "Seven Card") credit card holders since the summer of 2007. Purchases with Nanaco earn points, which can later be used to make more purchases. The cards uses Sony's FeliCa technology, which is also used in a wide variety of contactless smart cards including Suica, Edy, and Pasmo. Services began on April 23, 2007 and the number of members is more than 3.8 million as of end-June 2007.
"Nana" means "seven" in Japanese, and the giraffe's head and neck is in the shape of the number "7," in reference to "7-Eleven" and "Seven & i Holdings."
The number of Nanoco cards stood at 5.9 million at the end of May 2008.