Japan should aim to shed its cash-dependent custom and double the ratio of cashless payments by 2025, a report compiled by an industry ministry panel said Wednesday.
The report, entitled "Cashless Vision," said more cashless payments could help ease the country's labor shortage and benefit foreign tourists, and that if current levels are maintained it could cost the economy hundreds of billions of yen in the coming years.
It said that Japan should strive to boost the cashless payment ratio to 40 percent by 2025 from 20 percent in 2016, suggesting it achieve the goal two years earlier than the current government target of 2027.