Foreign visitors to Japan will be able to pay in their own currency if hotels, souvenir shops and other tourist businesses subscribe to a new payment support service to be launched in October by the Don Quijote Group.
Under the service, dubbed G Pay, customers will be able to pay using foreign currency bills at special terminals leased to businesses, officials of the group said.
Subscribers can choose up to 12 currencies from 120 options available with the terminal.
The group aims to launch about 200 to 300 units by March 2017 via its financial service arm Accretive Co., charging 10,000 to ¥20,000 a month, they said.
Accretive will exchange the foreign notes deposited in the terminals at the rate at the time of payment, sparing subscribers the risk of exchange-rate fluctuations.
The terminal, already introduced at some Don Quijote stores in Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture, as well as a hotel in Saitama Prefecture and a souvenir shop in Kyoto Prefecture, also has a function to detect fake bills, they said.
Don Quijote officials said they believed there was high demand for the service, adding they had received inquiries from hotels in Hokkaido and Okinawa Prefecture where more tourists are visiting.