Contactless payments using cards and mobile phones have existed and thrived in Japan for years. Millions of Japanese consumers make contactless transactions every day at a variety of merchant locations including public transits, convenience stores, and department stores. But the usage has been limited to domestic transactions only because they were based on the Felica contactless technology not used by global payments industry.
Today, Japan’s mobile network operator NTT DoCoMo announced that it will allow its 17 million iD mobile credit card service users to make contactless payments overseas through a partnership with MasterCard.
Said Vicky Bindra, President, Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, MasterCard Worldwide: “This launch is significant in that it not only marks another milestone in NTT DOCOMO’s and MasterCard’s history; it is also a landmark moment in the Japanese payments industry.”
The companies plan to start preparation to launch the service in the first half of fiscal year 20132, at which time customers in Japan using both iD mobile credit payments (based on FeliCa® technology) and an NFC (FeliCa＋TypeA/B) compatible DOCOMO smartphone will be entitled to the new service enabling contactless payments outside Japan, anywhere MasterCard PayPass is accepted.
The partnership with MasterCard might serve as a bridge for Japanese consumers who are used to making contactless payments in Japan to do the same in overseas markets.MasterCard said it now has about 500 thousand merchant locations in 41 countries around the world.
Read more about the story here. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/10/…tic-payment-n/
