Japanese communication services provider Line has formed a business alliance with e-commerce company Mercari to expand access to mobile payments in Japan.

The alliance, dubbed Mobile Payment Alliance, will facilitate mutual access to merchants of the partners’ respective mobile payment services, LINE Pay and Merpay.

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Furthermore, users will be able to pay using either of the services at accepting merchant stores.

The companies expect their mobile payments to offer a user-friendly experience for both merchants and users in Japan. In addition, merchants could anticipate increased user base at lower installation costs.

The open partnership urges additional payment service businesses to join and expand the initiative, which is intended to promote cashless payments across the country.

Announcing the business alliance, Mercari said: “This alliance between two existing payment services with large user bases is expected to bring a more convenient experience to both regular users and merchant stores.

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“The expansion of this project to more businesses is expected to further contribute to the realisation of a cashless society.”

LINE Pay is a mobile money transfer and payment service rolled out in December 2014. To bolster in-store payments, the company called for LINE Pay Global Alliance in November 2018.

The global partnership has been intended to combine LINE Pay, China’s WeChat Pay and Korea’s Naver Pay across Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia, and connect users to Japanese merchant stores.

Introduced last month, Merpay is focused on bolstering its user base, and has entered partnerships with with Mitsui Sumitomo Card, KDDI and JCB.