Takashimaya and JCB together plan to start a service in which shoppers at Takashimaya department stores can make payments using their mobile phones.
The major department store chain and JCB, the nation's largest credit card company, have been in talks to begin the nation's first service of this kind.
JCB has encouraged public transportation companies and fast food chains to introduce the payment system. The system will "boost the proliferation of mobile phones that also function as an electronic purse," a JCB official said.
The services will be based on new handsets from NTT DoCoMo Inc. that are due to be released in the summer. Payments will be collected by JCB after customers settle their mobile phone bills.
The service means shoppers can buy goods with their mobile phones and will not need to carry cash or credit cards.
The new phones will be equipped with noncontact integrated circuit cards similar to East Japan Railway Co.'s Suica train pass.
The information is exchanged automatically and instantly through wireless communication between the mobile phones and the cash registers.
With the phones, shoppers can settle payments instantly by holding the phone over the cash register. Takashimaya and JCB plan to start the service on sales floors that handle relatively small transactions, such as food sections.
Since December, 27 companies, including major credit card firms, All Nippon Airways and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi have conducted demonstrations of payment settlement services using the new cell phones.
Takashimaya and JCB hope to attract customers by offering the service earlier than their rivals.
Projects of various types are under way to develop other payment settlement services using cell phones.
In one type, users of Internet shopping input their credit card numbers using cell phones. Other proposed systems use cell phones to scan barcodes and take advantage of phones' ability to transmit data electronically.
But the system using cell phones with IC chips is said to be the most labor-saving
