UnionPay International announced today that UnionPay cards are accepted at all the 3,000 or so stores of Skylark in Japan. Skylark is Japan’s largest restaurant chain and has more than 20 brands including Gusto, Bamiyan, Jonathan’s, and Meng'an. The improvement of UnionPay's acceptance network in Japan helps enhancing UnionPay's localization in the market.

Over the past few years, more and more Chinese people are visiting Japan on free-and-independent travels or family trips. Meanwhile, the whole series of UnionPay card products including debit, credit and prepaid cards. In this context, an increasing number of the local daily-spending merchants are accepting UnionPay to attract more customers. So far, all the stores of 7-11, Lawson, FamilyMart, Circle K Sunkus and MINISTOP in Japan support UnionPay payment. In other words, UnionPay is accepted at over 90% of the local chain convenience stores. 

Now, UnionPay International further expands its acceptance network to F&B merchants. Restaurants under the Skylark Group can be found across Japan, covering quite a few local-style family restaurants. These restaurants provide diversified Chinese, Japanese and Western cuisines. Not only local residents like to visit these restaurants, many foreign visitors prefer to experience the local life there. Taking advantage of the extensive network of Skylark, UnionPay International is meeting tourists’ diverse payment needs brought by the booming free-and-independent traveling while laying a solid foundation for the business transformation of UnionPay in Japan.

At present, over 50% of ATMs and about 500,000 merchants in Japan accept UnionPay, covering duty-free stores, department stores, appliance chain stores and cosmeceuticals shops. Many local merchants also provide exclusive offers for UnionPay cardholders. For instance, LAOX, the largest duty-free store in Japan has participated in UnionPay International’s cross-border marketing platform to offer the highest discount to UnionPay cardholders. About 120 merchants at 28 international airports in Tokyo, Osaka, Okinawa, Hakodate and many other cities have participated in UnionPay International’s marketing campaign of “Global Top 100 Airports”, offering UnionPay cardholders discounts up to 10%.