Japan set to join India's UPI payment system: Minister Taro

Tokyo, May 19: Japanese Digital Minister Kono Taro on Thursday said that the government of Japan is seriously considering joining India's UPI payment system.

 

 

Minister Taro said, “Japan and India are trying to promote digital cooperation. We are serious about joining India's UPI payment system and also contemplating how we can mutually recognize EID, starting with cooperation to increase interoperability. G7 agrees to establish a new framework with a new secretariat on cross-border data flow and we are hoping that the Indian government will join this framework.”

 

 

Talking about India's digital revolution, the Japanese minister stated that he is surprised to see India leapfrogging in this sector. Taro stated that UPI is a “very convenient system of payment” which “can increase interoperability between governments”. “It could be another standard of cross-border payment,” he said. The minister also spoke about artificial intelligence and the growing concerns and opportunities around it. He emphasized the need to regulate and curb fake news which is being circulated using AI. “AI is moving forward very fast. G7 is trying to set up a forum to discuss how we regulate and prevent malicious actions by some elements. Among democratic countries, AI is a great opportunity, but it carries some risks. We are worried about its influence on democracy. The global leaders need to come together and think how to regulate and curb fake news which is spread using AI tech.” Commenting on the increasing issue of hacking and China facing the allegation of sponsoring such attacks, Japanese Minister Taro said, “We just had our bi-elections at the national level and there were a lot of interventions amid the polls. We need to really be careful and come up with creative ideas to minimize the impact of meddling by dictatorship (of China).” He further appreciated the cooperation shared between India, Japan, and the QUAD and hoped that the two nations with UPI economies can work together on digital payments. The Japanese minister further stated that QUAD is likely to become a much more important group in global politics. “QUAD is going to be more important and we need to increase trust among the four countries as well,” he said. He also said that the aggressive actions taken by the Chinese authorities in the Indian subcontinent are worrisome.

 

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“China has increased defence spending by 42-fold in the last 30 years. They are often violating territorial waters here as well. They have been doing the same thing at the Indian border also. We need to be very careful. QUAD is important to maintain peace in East Asia,” Minister Taro stated.