Ant Group’s Alipay+ payment service expands in Japan as tourism reopens through partnership with Universal Studios park

The partnership will allow the theme park to accept payments via e-wallets from China, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand

The deal comes as Japan lifts a daily cap on inbound arrivals and resumes a visa waiver policy – amounting to a full reopening

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An Alipay sign at an Ant Group office building in Shanghai, pictured on July 28, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 4:00pm, 11 Oct 2022

Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group has signed a partnership that will allow tourists visiting Universal Studios Japan from several countries to use the Alipay+ mobile-payment service to make purchases.

More than 1 million merchants in Japan now accept Alipay+, according to Ant Group, which is affiliated with Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.

Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka will introduce Alipay+’s QR code cross-border digital payments solution, which will allow the park to accept payments via e-wallets from China, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand.

The deal comes as Japan lifts a daily cap on inbound arrivals and resumes a visa waiver policy – amounting to a full reopening. The policy shift, which started on Tuesday, comes after nearly two and a half years of pandemic entry restrictions.

A photo taken on November 25, 2020, from a Kyodo News helicopter shows Super Nintendo World, an attraction area featuring the popular video game character Mario, at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. The area opened to the public in 2021. Photo: Kyodo

Ant Group is pushing Alipay+ as an underlying solution for payment service providers, and it already supports e-wallets operated by AlipayHK in Hong Kong, GCash in the Philippines, Touch ‘n Go in Malaysia and TrueMoney in Thailand.