payments
Stripe and NEC have begun exploring integration of the Stripe Reader S700 payment terminal, compatible with the unified commerce solution Stripe Terminal, with NEC's face recognition payment service. By combining Stripe's payment terminals, payment services, and functions with NEC's face recognition technology, which boasts
Economics
The Itochu Research Institute's Associate Senior Research Fellow Sota Takano put out a new research note last week, analyzing the most recent monthly labor survey. Nominal Wage Growth Accelerates, but Real Wages Remain Negative In September, the growth rate of total cash earnings was +1.9% year-on-
stock exchange
Hiromi Yamaji, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Japan Exchange Group (JPX), spoke at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on November 5, 2025, focusing on Japan's ongoing corporate governance reforms, the resultant market momentum, and JPX’s strategic initiatives for future growth. Key Takeaways 1. Sustainable
banking
Tokyo Star Bank and Global Trust Networks, which specializes in foreign residents and comprehensively provides services supporting life in Japan including housing, employment, telecommunications, and finance, have signed a basic agreement and commenced collaboration to realize financial services for foreign residents in Japan. The number of foreign residents in Japan
banking
SBI Holdings reported financial results for the first half of Fiscal Year 2025 (April 1, 2025 – September 30, 2025) at the end of October. Given the usual comprehensive reporting (150+ pages), the following article aims to extract the key updates. I. Consolidated Performance Overview SBI Holdings reported record-breaking performance
tokenization
The "Digital Asset Co-creation Consortium" (abbreviated as DCC, with 315 member organizations), hosted by Progmat, will establish the "Tokenization Law & Stock ST Working Group (WG)" and commence a joint study with the purpose to enable the transfer of rights for all securities, including stocks
mobile
The NTT Docomo Mobile Society Research Institute has published the 2025 edition of the "Mobile Society White Paper," detailing the status and usage of mobile technology in Japan. The document is structured into several chapters examining areas such as mobile terminal ownership and usage trends, including a high
payments
Mercari recorded a favorable start to the fiscal year in all three of Mercari Group's major businesses, with the recovery of the Marketplace GMV growth rate, the achievement of positive GMV growth in its US business, and the growth of FinTech credit services. Consolidated revenue was 49.4B
stablecoin
MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, and Progmat have announced that their joint stablecoin (SC) issuance and advanced cross-border settlement for a Mitsubishi Corporation proof-of-concept have both been approved to receive support from the Financial Services Agency of Japan’
payments
The Financial Services Agency established the "FinTech Proof-of-Concept Hub" in September 2017 to help resolve hesitations and concerns that FinTech companies and financial institutions tend to have when attempting unprecedented proof-of-concept experiments, by supporting their experiments through the clarification of related laws and regulations
mergers & acquisitions
NEC Corporation and CSG Systems International have announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which NEC will acquire CSG for US$80.70 per share in cash, for a total enterprise value of approximately US$2.9 billion, or JPY438.5 billion, including debt. The transaction price represents
venture capital
Funds has completed a Series E funding round, raising a total of 1.83 billion yen. The round was led by "SMBC-GB Growth No. 1 Investment Limited Partnership," jointly operated by Global Brain Corporation and SMBC Edge Corporation. Other investors include Asset Management One, one of Japan&