Japanese merchants report sharp increase in mobile transactions

The introduction of the Japanese government’s Cashless Japan initiative, which provides consumers with cashback incentives when they use a card or mobile phone to make a purchase, has led to a significant upswing in mobile payments adoption, according to reports from a number of merchants and mobile payments providers. Launched on 1 October, Cashless Japan lets consumers avoid a new increase in sales tax from 8% to 10% by selecting a non-cash payment method when they check out at any of some 500,000 merchants around the country.