PayPay receives ministerial approval for salary payments to digital wallet

Norbert Gehrke
Tokyo FinTech
Published in
4 min readAug 10, 2024

PayPay was designated by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare as a fund transfer business operator that handles digital wage payments to the accounts of fund transfer business operators. As a result, PayPay will provide “PayPay Salary Receipt” as a service that meets the designation requirements under the Enforcement Regulations of the Labor Standards Act.

Employees who work for businesses that support digital salary payment will continue to receive their salary in financial institution accounts or cash, and will also be able to receive their salary as PayPay Money balance in their PayPay accounts via the traditional method of bank transfer from their employers.

Aiming to provide the service to all PayPay users within 2024, a dedicated website for both employersand employees interested in “PayPay Paycheck” was scheduled to be published as of the announcement, i.e. Friday, August 9. The website will include an overview of “PayPay Paycheck,” downloadable materials, FAQs, and a contact form to assist in considering the service.

Additionally, starting from August 14, “PayPay Paycheck” will be made available to employees of SoftBank, LY Corporation, and other companies in the SoftBank group including PayPay, with salary payments to the PayPay accounts of employees who wish to use the service to begin accordingly.

A further announcement will be made when preparations are complete to offer “PayPay Paycheck” to all users of PayPay (excluding SoftBank group companies).

“PayPay Paycheck” aims to enhance convenience for both employees (users) and employers (businesses) by offering the following services and features:

  • Employees are required to first confirm whether a labor-management agreement necessary for digital salary payments has been concluded at their workplace and if so, provide their consent to their employers. After applying for “PayPay Paycheck” through the PayPay app, a “Salary Account” for receiving salaries, a “PayPay Money Account (Paycheck)” for holding received salaries as PayPay Balance, and an “Account Number for Payment to the Salary Account (Bank Account Number)” for topping up the “PayPay Money Account (Paycheck)” via bank transfer will be set up within the PayPay account. The employees should next provide the “Account Number for Payment to the Salary Account (Bank Account Number)” to their employers as the account to which their salary is transferred. Finally, when the employer transfers the salary via bank transfer, it will be topped up to the “PayPay Money Account (Paycheck)” as PayPay Balance (PayPay Money (Paycheck)).
  • The maximum balance limit for PayPay Money (Paycheck) that is topped up as salary is 200,000 yen. If any newly received salary exceeds this limit, the excess amount will be sent from PayPay to a prescribed financial institution account in the employee’s name (Auto Sweep Account) free of charge. The maximum balance limit for PayPay Money for users of “PayPay Paycheck” is 800,000 yen (with a combined limit of 1,000,000 yen for PayPay Money and PayPay Money (Paycheck)).
  • PayPay Money (Paycheck) topped up as salary can, immediately after it is received, be sent to a financial institution account in the user’s name (bank transfer). If the financial institution is PayPay Bank, the transfer can be made free of charge. For other financial institutions, the transfer fee is 100 yen (tax included).
  • However, the first transaction in each month that includes PayPay Money (Paycheck) can be made for free, regardless of the financial institution.
  • Employers can pay salaries to employees’ PayPay accounts via bank transfer as they traditionally do. There is no need to develop an additional payment system or newly conclude a service contract with PayPay. Employers can transfer salaries to the “Account Number for Payment to the Salary Account (Bank Account Number)” which PayPay assigns to an employee’s PayPay account. Once the salary is topped up to the “Salary Account,” the salary payment is complete. The receipt of transfers to the “Account Number for Payment to the Salary Account” and the deposit to the user’s “Salary Account” are processed in real-time within PayPay.

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Norbert Gehrke
Tokyo FinTech

Passionate about strategy & innovation across Asia. At home in Japan. Connector of people & ideas.