Rakuten, Japan's largest railway JR East partner to offer cashless payments by 2020

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Payment Inc. has teamed up with the country’s largest railway firm, East Japan Railway Company (JR East) to promote cashless payments.

The newly formed partnership will allow commuters to charge and use JR East’s Suica e-money service via the Rakuten Pay mobile app. The cashless transport service will be available to commuters across 5,000 train stations and approximately 50,000 buses, as well as to around 600,000 stores nationwide, according to its press release.

Users will also be able to charge their Suica in the app via credit card payment using Visa, Mastercard, and JCB-branded Rakuten cards.

Furthermore, commuters can quickly and securely use Suica services through their smartphone without the need to download a new app or register their credit card details.

In-app transactions will allow commuters to earn Rakuten Super Points, which is reportedly dubbed as the number 1 loyalty points program in Japan in terms of overall customer satisfaction. The app is only compatible with Android devices that support Osaifu-Keitai.

The upcoming service is slated to be launched in spring 2020. In addition, the two firms plan to promote cashless payments adoption in other areas.

Earlier this year, Rakuten officially announced its own cryptocurrency exchange, Rakuten Wallet, which started accepting customer applications on April 15. More recently, it partnered with blockchain security company CipherTrace to ensure anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.

Meanwhile, in the US, AT&T became the first mobile carrier to accept cryptocurrency as an online bill payment option via cryptocurrency payment processor BitPay.