Android Pay follows Apple Pay into Japanese market
Google’s mobile wallet, Android Pay, is now available in Japan after Apple launched its rival service in the country in October. Japanese Android users will now be able to complete transactions using their mobiles at the 470,000 locations that accept prepaid e-money service Rakuten Edy. The mobile payments system is available in the UK, Poland, Ireland, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Android Pay, Google's mobile payments service for phones running the OS, is up and running in Japan, two months after Apple's rival service went live on the island nation.

The launch will allow Android handset owners to use their devices to complete transactions at more than 470,000 locations that already accept Rakuten Edy, a prepaid e-money service, Google said in a statement Monday. The search giant's latest attempt to spur people into paying for items using their phone launched in the US in 2015 and is now accepted in UK, Ireland, Poland, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Mobile payments, which have been discussed for years, have been slow to take off. But many more customers are expected to start using their phones to buy items in stores now that three of the biggest tech companies in the world -- Apple, Google and Samsung -- have introduced new mobile-payments platforms.

Apple announced in September that its Apple Pay mobile payments app would finally be available in Japan in October, thanks to new technology in the iPhone 7 and the Apple Watch Series 2. Making Apple Pay available in Japan involved Apple tweaking its technology to support FeliCa, the tap-and-pay contactless mobile payment technology developed by Sony.