Politicians and a regulator?have expressed concern that foreign payment apps might be used to circumvent Japan¡¯s domestic financial system, putting transactions out of reach of tax authorities and beyond routine surveillance, and raising potential money-laundering issues.
They caution that the size and scale of these money flows is not known and that transactions handled this way might be perfectly legitimate, while some large international payments apps have teamed up with local networks, putting them firmly on the financial grid.
¡°As I understand it, Chinese-style mobile payment platforms such as Alipay are now widely used in Japan, and in some cases transactions that do not pass through Japan have effectively become routine,¡± Tsukasa Abe, a Japan Innovation Party lawmaker, told parliament on March 11.?
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