China's Didi Chuxing recently announced that DiDi Mobility Japan, its joint venture with SoftBank, will start providing a food delivery service in Japan from April 2020.

A representative from the company revealed that Didi started recruiting food delivery partners in Japan's Osaka in February and they plan to first launch the service in Osaka in April. It will be gradually available in the entire country.

Early in December 2019, Japanese media reported that Didi Chuxing would launch online meal delivery service in Japan in 2020, which would apply the company's technical experience accumulated on taxi app to the food delivery sector. At that time, Didi responded that the company was investigating several target markets and no plan had been made.

It is said that Didi Chuxing launched online taxi service in Osaka in September 2018 and its Japanese business achieved good development. The company reached cooperation with over 400 local taxi companies and provided service in 21 regions, covering over 50% population of Japan.