Nation's number seen nearing halfway mark in 2018, ahead of Olympics
Foreign tourists should be able to access almost half of Japan's ATMs for cash using overseas-issued debit or credit cards by the end of 2018, though the country still will lag most Western nations in offering this convenience.
Banks are rushing to make their ATMs accessible, and other operators of foreigner-friendly cash machines at convenience stores are adding thousands of new locations.
Nine banks and other ATM operators surveyed by The Nikkei offered around 72,000 machines accessible via foreign-issued cards at the end of 2016. Roughly 90,000 machines are expected to provide this accessibility at the close of 2018. Japan currently has about 190,000 ATMs nationwide.
All of Seven Bank's cash machines, found mainly at 7-Eleven stores, accept foreign cards. The bank had 23,000 ATMs at the end of 2016, and looks to raise that count by 2,000.
E-net plans an 80% expansion in the number of compatible ATMs, which mostly overlap with FamilyMart convenience stores, to 13,000 machines. Lawson ATM Networks, which serves rival chain Lawson, plans a 20% increase to 14,000.
Japan Post Bank's ATMs accept foreign cards, and the bank plans to install 3,500 new machines over two years at new FamilyMart stores and other locations.
In the U.S. and many European countries, foreign-issued cards work with nearly all ATMs.
More than 24 million foreigners traveled to Japan last year, and the government aims for 40 million visitors in 2020, the year the Summer Olympics returns to Tokyo. The government has asked the three Japanese megabanks to have a substantial number of foreigner-friendly ATMs in operation by 2018. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group look to raise their tallies to 3,000 eventually.
(Nikkei)
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