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The story
On October 1, Zensho Holdings began accepting the “Smart Code” common QR/barcode payment standard at roughly 5,290 of its domestic restaurants (as of the end of August 2026), including Sukiya and Hama-zushi. While this opens the door for payment methods like FamiPay and ANA Pay, it also turns out that six “Pay” services that used the same underlying system — including Hama Pay and Yucho Pay — will be discontinued on December 20, 2026. On 5ch, commenters piled on about the odd order of the announcements and the sheer, ever-growing number of “XX Pay” services.
Published
Author: MN Work & Life Editorial Team
On October 1, Zensho Holdings began accepting the “Smart Code” QR/barcode payment scheme at roughly 5,290 domestic restaurants operated by the group (as of the end of August 2026).
Source: news.mynavi.jp / Original article here
What people said
>Also, the Smart Code contracts for Bank Pay, OKI Pay, Koi Pay, Hama Pay, Yucho Pay, and YOKA!Pay will all end on December 20, 2026.
JCB, you announce the shutdowns AFTER you launch the new thing? Come on.
Yeah, makes zero sense lol
Guess it's not some open free standard — they're probably charging fees for it
Uh, that one's getting discontinued ("サ終" = service shutdown). Are you using it without even knowing? Hope you're doing okay…
Notice to Yucho Pay users:
Yucho Pay will be discontinued on Sunday, December 20, 2026.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and trouble this will cause you.
We will continue to expand our services so that you can keep using them safely and conveniently,
and we thank you for your continued patronage of Japan Post Bank.
Sukiya, Hama-zushi, COCO'S, Nakau,
Zetteria, Jolly-Pasta, Big Boy,
Jukusei Yakiniku Ichiban, Olive no Oka, Hanaya Yohei,
El Torito, Katsuan, Kyubei-ya, Denmaru / Ifu
Isn't TEPPAY actually pretty strong though?
Meanwhile, IC (contactless card) payments show zero sign of growing… though I guess nobody's pulling out of that either, so no real harm done.
If NFC has spread this far, you'd think we'd see new Type-A/B services beyond just credit cards too.
The only problem is it hasn't actually reached the level of being a real 'economic sphere' yet.
Every time I check out, the clerk ends up scanning like 20 of them, and it eats up a ridiculous amount of time for no reason.
You're a shareholder — bring it up at the shareholders' meeting.
It'd be strong if every railway operator got on board, but for store payments, Mobile Suica or Mobile PASMO already covers it. Just tap — it's faster than scanning a code anyway.
Transit IC cards are useless for people who don't use public transportation though.
PayPay's done for? I had noticed more and more places not taking it lately…
s://www.boy.co.jp/kojin/hamapay/service-end/index.html
This is way too much of a hassle.
These six Pay services all run on GMO's "Bank Pay" system, and it looks like GMO is shutting that system down. Each company already put out releases last year saying their service would end this December.
What even is TEPPAY? I just get a vibe of total pointlessness from it.
'It's done for' among those 18 is just one person's personal opinion, that's all.
Good old cold hard cash causes the least confusion.
Unify them into one already.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
At the root of this is the end of the “Bank Pay” infrastructure provided by GMO Payment Gateway. Six services, including Hama Pay and Yucho Pay, ran on this infrastructure, and following GMO’s decision to shut it down, all of them will stop working on the same date, December 20, 2026. Smart Code itself is a common QR/barcode payment standard pushed by JCB, and it has now been introduced at Zensho-affiliated stores as well. Thread opinions diverged over the odd order in which the new standard’s launch and the existing services’ shutdowns were announced, and over the fact that QR payment services keep springing up one after another while NFC (contactless tap) payments show little sign of spreading. Some also pointed out that transit IC cards are awkward for people who don’t use public transportation, and no consensus emerged on which payment method is the real front-runner.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Business News+) thread “Smart Code Introduced at Roughly 5,290 Stores Including Sukiya and Hama-zushi, Making FamiPay and ANA Pay Usable.”
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