OSAKA -- West Japan Railway plans to launch a smartphone app payment service as early as next year, making it the first Japanese train operator to enter a market populated by mobile carriers and tech companies, Nikkei has learned.
With the move, JR West hopes to leverage data from its 5 million daily riders to develop new revenue streams. It has been looking to strengthen non-railway businesses as railway revenue growth has become difficult due to a declining population in its operational area, which covers the western half of the main island of Honshu.
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