Japan: Alipay now available in thousands of Lawson stores

Japan's largest convenience store chain Lawson has announced that customers will be able to use online payment solution Alipay across its whole network.

Shoppers can now pay for their goods at 13,000 Lawson convenience stores in Japan through China's online payment solution Alipay – the service has been available in China for over a year, reports xinhuanet.com.

By doing this Lawson hopes to attract a greater number of Chinese customers into its Japanese stores, with Chinese tourism become a significant source of income for the retailing business of the country.

Lawson introduced Alipay at 9 stores in Japan in January 2016 as a part of a pilot program.

Douglas Feagin, senior vice president of Ant Financial Services Group, a partner of Lawson, said that customers can use Alipay to make their payments in Chinese yuan in real time without any fees.

Alipay is a major online payment platform with over 400 million users.