TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Post Holdings Co (>> Japan Post Holdings Co Ltd) and convenience store operator FamilyMart Co (>> FamilyMart Co Ltd) are forming an alliance for overseas delivery services, as a growing number of Japanese companies try to cash in on a surge in the number of foreign visitors.

The alliance will, for instance, enable tourists in Japan to hand over souvenirs at a FamilyMart store in Japan and pick them up back in their home countries at another outlet of the store operator, the companies said. They did not give financial details of the tie-up.

The number of foreign visitors in Japan has been hitting record levels since the government began relaxing visa requirements. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also set an ambitious target recently to double the number of inbound tourists and the amount of money they spend in the country by 2020.

Japan Post is majority owned by the government. FamilyMart is one of the largest convenience store operators in Japan. It has about 12,000 stores in Japan and 6,000 overseas, mainly in Asia.

FamilyMart President Isamu Nakayama told a joint news conference they plan to start the services this year in Taiwan, where it has about 3,000 stores.

The companies also said they will increase the number of Japan Post Bank (>> Japan Post Bank Co Ltd) ATMs at FamilyMart stores in Japan. Currently, 500 FamilyMart stores use Japan Post Bank's ATMs.

Japan Post Holdings President Masatsugu Nagato said they are planning to install 2,000-4,000 ATMs at FamilyMart stores staring next year.

One of the biggest peeves of overseas tourists visiting Japan is that many ATMs do not accept cards issued outside Japan. They find it especially frustrating since Japan is still a cash-oriented society and many stores and restaurants even now do not accept credit cards.

Japan Post Bank President Norito Ikeda said his bank's ATMs are designed to take overseas cards and able to show commands in 16 languages.

FamilyMart's rival Seven-Eleven has its own ATM network run by subsidiary Seven Bank Ltd (>> Seven Bank, Ltd.), whose machines also accepts overseas cards. The bank has said the number of overseas cards used at its ATMs jumped by 60 percent last year.

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

By Taiga Uranaka