LY Corp., the company behind Line, a popular mobile messenger, has announced its decision to discontinue its Line Pay service in Japan by April 30, 2025. This move comes amidst criticism over Japan's perceived pressure to distance Naver Corp., South Korea's largest internet portal operator, from LY. LY, a joint venture between Japan's SoftBank and South Korea's Naver, cited the need for "optimal allocation of management resources" as the reason for terminating the mobile payment service in Japan. The company has assured its 44 million Japanese Line Pay users that they will be able to transfer their balances to PayPay, a similar service offered by SoftBank, while continuing Line Pay in Thailand and Taiwan. LY explained that the decision to discontinue Line Pay in Japan is part of its strategy to "selectively focus" management resources in the financial domain by reorganizing and integrating overlapping business areas to expand group synergies. This announcement follows LY's previous statement about discussions with Naver regarding a potential change in their capital relationship following a data leak incident last year. Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications had issued administrative guidance to LY after the data leak incident, urging the company to decrease its dependence on Naver, potentially by transferring its stake to SoftBank. However, LY is expected to report to the Japanese government with detailed measures to lessen Naver's influence in LY by July 1, but it is anticipated that the issue surrounding the Korean company's share will not be included.