Alipay cooperates with Mizuho Bank of Japan to expand mobile payment business

Mizuho Bank, one of Japan’s three largest banks, today announced it would launch a QR code payment service based on its banking e-money platform, vigorously promoting Japan’s construction of a “cashless society,” Japanese media reported February 20.

It is understood that Mizuho Bank announced that it will launch a free app, while based on the app development of the J-CoinPay function, to provide Japanese users with remittance, payment, bank account management and recharge services, , it will also join forces with about 60 local banking institutions in Japan to promote them nationwide, with the goal of enabling Japanese users to spend J-CoinPay “anytime, anywhere”.

Mizuho Bank also said that in addition to serving local customers, at the same time, through cooperation with overseas partners, so that J-CoinPay services and visits to Japan foreigners accustomed to the country’s mobile payment methods smoothly docking.

Among them, Mizuho Bank and Alipay will start cooperation in April, when Chinese tourists will be able to use Alipay to pay for Japanese merchants who access J-Coin Pay.

In the future, the service is also expected to gradually cover overseas consumer demand from other countries visiting Japan through Alipay’s partners.

According to statistics, Chinese tourists to Japan in 2018 has been more than 8 million, the largest source of tourists in Japan.




Since 2015, when Alipay first connected to Japanese merchants, Chinese tourists have been able to use Alipay for consumption in major Japanese shopping malls, duty-free shops, chain convenience stores, restaurants, etc，take a taxi in Tokyo can also use Alipay to truly enjoy the great convenience of mobile payment. Chinese tourists in Japan shopping consumption can be paid directly with mobile phone scan code.

The partnership with Mizuho Bank will further increase the number of merchants connected to Alipay, where visitors will be able to spend simply by displaying the QR code of Alipay at merchants connected to J-Coin Pay.

China’s leading mobile payments have also set off a wave of “cashless payment” construction in Japan’s local market.

In early February of this year, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the Ginza shopping street in Shinagawa, Tokyo, where he used a two-dimensional billing service using a smartphone QR code, paying about 3000 yen to buy flower bundles and so on.

“It feels easier than I thought,” he told reporters, adding that he “would like to take this opportunity to actively promote cashless settlement and work hard to reach 40 million foreign tourists”.
It is against this backdrop that local Banks and other institutions in Japan have taken actions to develop localized mobile payment services. The large number of users and advanced experience brought by Alipay also make the cooperation between them logical.