National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and NTT Data to launch Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in Japan

Key facts

• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has partnered with Japanese IT services firm NTT Data to roll out Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in Japan on a trial basis in fiscal 2026.
• The initial phase of the service will be available to Indian tourists visiting Japan, allowing payments to be debited directly from their bank accounts in India.
• Japan will join eight other countries that have already adopted the UPI platform, including Bhutan, Singapore, Nepal, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sri Lanka, Qatar, Mauritius, and France.
• UPI transactions in India grew by 42 percent in fiscal 2024, reaching a total of 185.8 billion transactions.
• A June 2025 report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) described UPI as the world’s largest real-time payment system.
• Data from 2023 shows that 49 percent of all instant-payment transactions worldwide were processed through the UPI network.
• NTT Data provides payment terminals and processing services to approximately six million stores in India and plans to promote UPI adoption among merchants in Japan.