Hankyu Hanshin Department Stores has announced that it has been certified by China's Tencent Holdings as a flagship department store operator for its WeChat Pay smartphone payment app. Hankyu Hanshin, based in the western Japanese city of Osaka, became the first to acquire the status among department store operators outside China. Tencent operates WeChat, China's biggest messaging service.

On the same day, the Japanese firm, a unit of H2O Retailing Corp, launched a campaign that allows customers to use discount coupons they get from its official WeChat account at nine Hankyu Hanshin stores. The campaign will run until 15 September.

It also started a service enabling those who order cosmetic products through WeChat to receive them at the Hankyu Umeda main store in Osaka.