OREANDA-NEWS. June 27, 2011. NTT DOCOMO, INC. announced today that it will become Japan’s first mobile operator to offer a convenient mobile service for overseas remittances, including phone-to-phone money transfers to the Philippines, when it launches “docomo Money Transfer™” on July 7.

Remittances to the Philippines will be possible from i-mode™-compatible DOCOMO phones to SMART Money, a reloadable payment card operated by Smart Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of DOCOMO partner Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT). Beneficiaries will be able to confirm receipt promptly by accessing their SMART Money card via a Smart mobile phone.

Funds also can be sent from an i-mode phone in Japan to a beneficiary’s account at a participating bank or financial institution in Brazil, South Korea or China, as well as the Philippines, the four countries accounting for 80 percent of all foreign residents in Japan. Beneficiaries can quickly and safely retrieve the funds with a password and usual identification.

Other countries are planned to be added, and smartphone users will be able to use the service in the coming future.

Remittances will cost just 1,000 JPY, much cheaper than many other overseas remittance services, taking advantage of existing systems for international remittances and “docomo kouza (account)” mobile remittances in Japan.

Details are available on DOCOMO’s website and at DOCOMO information centers in Chinese, Korean and Portuguese, as well as Japanese and English.