Western Union, the leading international money transfer operator, will soon offer Japan's burgeoning population of foreign workers the ability to send money home by smartphone.

A Japan-specific app will launch within a few months, CEO Hikmet Ersek told Nikkei.

Also on the docket is teaming up with Japanese universities to offer a service letting foreign students pay tuition in their home currencies, with an eye to debuting it in the second half of 2018. Western Union will start with a base of nine partner schools and expand from there.

U.S.-based Western Union is widely used among migrant workers in the West and sees similar opportunities in Japan. The country will likely continue bringing in such laborers as its population ages and dwindles, Ersek said.

The company, which was founded in 1851 and operates in more than 200 markets, already offers remittance services in Japan through 200 or more partner locations such as convenience stores. But as smartphones spread rapidly around the globe, the devices are becoming a major tool in money transfers. Western Digital's app, already available in the U.S. and Britain, lets users remit from sources including bank accounts, Apple Pay and credit cards.