Eight hundred million China UnionPay (CUP) cardholders are to get access to ATM networks in Japan through a gateway platform provided by JCB International.
The acceptance will begin with the UFJ Bank ATM network of more than 6000 ATMs from March 2006, to be followed in May by Japan Post which will open its network of 26,000 ATMs to CUP cards.
The number of Chinese visiting Japan has been growing rapidly in recent years, reaching 620,000 in 2004, a significant increase of 37% over the previous year, and is expected to climb to one million in the near future.
China UnionPay, based in Shanghai and licensed by People's Bank of China, is China's only national payment network, and was jointly established in March 2002 by more than 80 financial institutions in China.