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Japan to allow Indian tourists to pay with UPI, expanding India’s digital reach abroad
Japan will soon allow Indian tourists to pay using UPI at select merchants through a new NPCI–NTT DATA partnership, marking UPI’s first entry into East Asia.
Image: Japan. tianshu-liu vis Unsplash
Indian tourists visiting Japan will soon be able to pay for meals, souvenirs and transportation with the same mobile apps they use at home.
In a bid to court one of Asia’s fastest-growing travel segments, NTT DATA Japan, a subsidiary of the technology conglomerate NTT DATA Group, has signed a memorandum of understanding with NPCI International Payments Limited — the overseas arm of India’s National Payments Corporation — to enable Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, payments at select Japanese merchants, as per reports.
Under the agreement, stores acquired by NTT DATA will begin accepting UPI by allowing customers to scan QR codes at checkout, integrating India’s ubiquitous digital payment system into Japan’s long-established card processing network, known as CAFIS.
The move comes amid a steady rise in travel from India to Japan. More than 208,000 Indian tourists visited between January and August 2025, according to Travel and Leisure, making the cohort increasingly attractive to Japan’s tourism sector as it seeks to diversify beyond Chinese and Southeast Asian visitors.
It will be the first time UPI has been deployed in East Asia, marking a milestone in India’s efforts to export its homegrown financial infrastructure. The system, which allows instant bank-to-bank transfers via mobile apps, is already accepted in countries including France, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Nepal and Mauritius.
For Indian travelers, the expansion could reduce reliance on cash or costly forex cards. For Japan, a nation long dominated by cash transactions but increasingly embracing digital alternatives, it represents both an economic opportunity and a pragmatic shift.
As UPI gains ground globally, the agreement highlights how India’s once-insular payments architecture is rapidly becoming a cross-border tool - one QR code at a time.
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