“LINE Pay” services in Japan will be terminated by April 30, 2025
LINE Yahoo Japan and LINE Pay will gradually shut down the LINE Pay mobile money transfer and payment service in Japan with an end date of April 30, 2025. LINE Pay in Thailand and Taiwan is not affected by this service shutdown, and will continue to provide service.
The “LINE Pay” payment service in Japan will be available until late April 2025, with some exceptions. New user registrations for “LINE Pay” in Japan are scheduled to end in late November 2024.
Users who wish to do so will be able to transfer their “LINE Pay” balance to PayPay, which will ensure continuity of payment functions, and allow users to make payments at “PayPay” affiliated stores. Details of the procedure for transferring balances to PayPay will be provided by the end of February 2025.
LINE Pay balances remaining after the termination of the LINE Pay service will be refunded in accordance with the Payment Services Act, regardless of the type of LINE Pay account, i.e. “LINE Cash Accounts” and “LINE Money Accounts”. The latter requires identity verification, and there are difference in the functions available, as well as the credit limits offered.
Background
LINE Pay launched its remittance and payment service “LINE Pay” in Japan in December 2014, which any LINE user can easily start using. Since the service was launched, it has been supported by a wide range of users for its remittance service and seamless identity verification service in addition to providing a variety of online and offline payment methods, and as of May 2024, the number of registered users in Japan has exceeded 44 million.
With the milestone of the 10th anniversary of the launch of “LINE Pay” in December 2024 approaching, LINE Yahoo! has been reviewing the development of their business and the value we can provide to our users with an eye on the next 10 years.
Additionally, LINE Yahoo! has reorganized its business to expand group synergies and has been selecting and concentrating management resources in the financial sector, including consolidating overlapping business areas.
As a result of considering the changing environment surrounding “LINE Pay” and the optimal allocation of management resources within the LINE Yahoo Group, it has been decided to consolidate the domestic remittance and payment services area into “PayPay” and terminate the “LINE Pay” service in Japan. As the services provided by the two companies overlap, there will be no transfer of business from LINE Pay to PayPay Corporation, and only balance transfers will be made available to those who wish to do so.
In addition, some business will be inherited by LINE Yahoo, e.g. the “LINE Pay Public Personal Authentication Service (JPKI)” and “LINE Points,” which provide identity verification using My Number cards, will be taken over by LINE Yahoo! and will continue to be provided as services.
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