Japan FinTech Observer #48

Welcome to the forty-eighth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer.

Norbert Gehrke

Norbert Gehrke

— 8 min read
Japan FinTech Observer #48

Welcome to the forty-eighth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer.

We did it, the spell is broken! After being turned away a mere 50 yen below the all-time high during the prior week, the Nikkei marched comfortably through this bubble era marker on the second attempt. Now all attention is shifting to the Topix, a much broader index that is still about eight percent below its peak.

In the shadow of these buoyant markets, Japan FinTech Observer readership also peaked at over 9,000 subscribers. We truly appreciate your continuing to spend time with us, thank you!

Here is what we are going to cover this week:

  • Venture Capital & Private Markets: Japan’s cabinet approved a bill that adds crypto to the list of assets the nation’s investment funds and venture capital firms can acquire; Nissay Asset Management and Nissay Capital will each newly establish funds; MS&AD Ventures participates in Armilla AI seed round; MUFG Innovation Partners invests in Teamshares; Saison Capital participates in VIDYUT ‘s Series A; Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Mizuho Bank, Mizuho Innovation Frontier, and e-dash concluded a capital and business alliance agreement; Startale Labs has secured a total of $3.5m in funding from UOB Venture Management and Samsung Next; Hyperithm participates in Blueprint Finance’s USD 7.5m funding round; Nomura’s Laser Digital participates in USD 7m seed funding round for beoble; gumi Cryptos Capital led the USD 2.2m investment round into Singularity; IN Venture (Sumitomo Corporation) and Z Venture Capital (LY Corporation) participate in BRIA AI USD 24m Series A
  • Insurance: Tokio Marine Holdings has decided to establish a Group Audit Committee; Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MSI) of the MS&AD Insurance Group and UrbanX Technologies win award at Japan Open Innovation Grand Prize; MSI will also start providing dedicated insurance for users of LIFEBANK’s egg bank service
  • Banking: Interbrand Japan presented its 2024 list of the most valuable brands, with only one financial services company in the Top Ten — MUFG; Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking will terminate its information banking service “Dprime”; SMBC Trust Bank has implemented nCino’s Mortgage Solution; Gunma Bank CEO Akihiko Fukai addresses foreign investors in a video message; MUFG’s PT Bank Danamon Indonesia and FinTech firm Helicap have entered into a strategic partnership
  • Capital Markets & Asset Management: Flying high
  • Digital Assets: issuance of Japan’s first public offering security token bond that will pay interest fully in electronic money; Curvegrid supported LIFULL Financial in the development of their NFTs for one-day vacation rentals; SyFu has issued a white paper, and announced its integration with Money Forward; the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has introduced a virtual Tokyo Metaverse on Roblox
  • The Last Word: End of an Era

Last week, we have started offering the eXponential Finance Podcast as a LinkedIn newsletter subscription, just like the Japan FinTech Observer. More than 3,000 have kindly accepted the invitation — thank you!

Tune in as Deep Singh shares his visionary insights on how CrediLinq.Ai is reshaping the landscape of business eCommerce with groundbreaking embedded finance technology.

This 135th episode of the eXponential Finance Podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, and many other major platforms through our PodLink.

Venture Capital & Private Markets

Insurance

Banking

Capital Markets

The Nikkei Stock Average broke the bubble high set in 1989

  • Since the press has long celebrated the “Magnificient Seven” US stocks, Goldman Sachs felt obliged to add a European flavor with the “Granolas” 🤦 and also identified the “Seven Samurais” for Japan 🥱, which are highly weighted and liquid stocks, namely Screen Holdings, Advantest, Disco, Tokyo Electron, Toyota, Subaru, and Mitsubishi
  • The latest Japan legal update from Anderson Mori & Tomotsune includes analysis on (5) Amendments to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, (6) Recent Development of the Japanese Continuous Disclosure Regulations, and (8) Recent Changes in the Carbon Offset Markets in Japan

Digital Assets

The Last Word: End of an Era

With Japan FinTech Week coming up, and lots of foreign visitors expected on the occasion, here is a public service announcement: if you are going to take home some of our limited supply, world-famous Japanese whisky, please make sure it is (a) Japanese and (b) whisky.

Regulation enacted in 2021 is finally kicking in with the new fiscal year on April 1, but to date the production, aging and bottling does not all have to take place in Japan, and sometimes shochu is fashionably labelled as whisky.

This has been written about quite a bit, so if you dare to google it, you will find plenty of material. If you do not care about these details, and just like the taste of whatever you are drinking, do not bother. Prost!

If you would like to see more of our content, please head over to the Tokyo FinTech YouTube Channel or check out the eXponential Finance Podcast.

We have also created two LinkedIn groups, the “Japan Startup Observer” if your interest in Japan goes beyond FinTech, and the “FinTechs of India” to capture the developments on the subcontinent. We invite you to join both these groups.

Have an awesome week ahead.

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