Japan's cashless payment players burn cash to draw customers

Generous campaigns and upcoming sales tax hike will be strong incentives

20190122 Cashless main

New players see huge opportunities in Japan's growing cashless payments market (Photo by Maho Obata).

AKANE OKUTSU, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- Operators of cashless payment systems are struggling to expand in Japan, urging companies like SoftBank's affiliate QR payment service PayPay to invest in promotional campaigns in a bid to increase customers.

PayPay launched its second campaign to give out 10 billion yen ($91 million) to its customers this month. Users of its payment app were given discounts of up to 1,000 yen per payment.

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