In Japan, most domestic bank transfers move through the Zengin System (the Zengin Data Telecommunication System), run by the Japanese Banks’ Payment Clearing Network. Launched in 1973, the Zengin System is Japan’s primary network for domestic retail payments and the world’s oldest real-time payment system. It connects nearly every bank and financial institution in the country, so a transfer between two Japanese accounts almost always runs over it. This page explains how the system works and what it means for payments into and out of a Japanese account.
Japan uses the yen (JPY). Amounts here are shown in yen. For how JPY fits into multi-currency handling on Hello Clever, see the cross-border pages.

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How the Zengin System works

When a customer instructs a transfer, their bank sends the transfer data to the Zengin Center, which forwards it to the recipient’s bank. Data of fund transfer advices sent by banks are forwarded by the Zengin Center to the recipient’s bank in real time. The actual movement of money between the banks (settlement) is handled separately through the Bank of Japan.
The Zengin System handles clearing, relaying the transfer instruction between banks so the recipient’s bank knows to credit the account. The final settlement between the banks themselves is completed through accounts held at the Bank of Japan. For smaller transfers, the system nets amounts between banks and settles them together; large-value transfers are handled individually through the Bank of Japan’s own system (BOJ-NET).
A traditional Japanese bank transfer is addressed using the recipient’s bank, branch, account type, account number, and account holder name. Unlike Australia’s PayID, the long-standing Zengin flow does not use a simple alias such as an email or phone number, though Japan is planning to add alias-based transfers in a future system (see real-time transfers and the More Time System).
Licensed providers can transfer up to 50 million JPY per transaction via Zengin-net; daily caps and corporate tiers are not publicly defined. Individual banks may apply their own limits below that ceiling.

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Cash is still common

It is worth understanding the wider context: despite having an early real-time system, Japan remains a cash-heavy market. In 2023, real-time payments represented only a 3.7% share of total payments volume in Japan, and this share is not expected to change significantly by 2028. Japanese consumers still overwhelmingly prefer paper-based payments, largely cash, with its market share representing 62% of total payments volume in 2023. Card and digital payments are growing, but for many customers a bank transfer sits alongside cash, convenience-store payments, and wallets such as PayPay.
When you accept payments from Japanese customers, offering a bank transfer option is valuable, but pair it with the payment methods your customers already use (cards, especially JCB, and popular wallets) to maximise the number who complete checkout.

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Where to go next

Real-time transfers and More Time System

How Japan enabled round-the-clock instant transfers, and what is changing by 2030.

Accepting JPY A2A payins

What it means to collect account-to-account payments in yen.