payments
Financial technology firm Infcurion and printing & digital solutions conglomerate TOPPAN have announced a platform integration, adding direct bank account charging capabilities to TOPPAN’s municipal cashless payment service, "Chiiki Pay®". The new functionality links TOPPAN’s regional platform with Infcurion’s embedded top-up infrastructure, "CharG&
payments
Digital payment infrastructure firm DCP and trade-technology provider STANDAGE have launched a joint initiative with The Shoko Chukin Bank to develop an integrated trade and settlement platform, targeting commercial deployment in fiscal 2028. The project aims to achieve delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement by synchronizing electronic bills of lading
payments
Web3 infrastructure provider UPBOND and Japan Tax Free have launched a service enabling international visitors to receive consumption tax refunds in JPYC, a yen-denominated stablecoin. The initiative, which went live on November 1, 2026, operates on the Avalanche blockchain. The rollout commercializes a framework first announced by Japan Tax
digital assets
The first "Study Group on How to Respond to Digital and Decentralized Finance" of the 2026 fiscal year took place on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The session commenced, as is customary, with explanations from the Secretariat, followed by presentations by Nomura Holdings and Securitize Japan. Global financial capital
payments
Japan’s three major banking institutions—Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Mizuho Bank, and MUFG Bank—alongside Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation and systems integrator TISI, have successfully conducted a joint proof of concept (PoC) for bank-issued stablecoins and advanced cross-border settlements. The trial stems from an
digital assets
Japanese telecommunications giant KDDI, alongside joint-venture partner au Coincheck Digital Assets, blockchain developer HashPort, and au Financial Services, announced the launch of "αU wallet," a non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet embedded directly as a mini-app within the widespread au PAY mobile payment platform. The integrated service allows
digital assets
Blockchain infrastructure provider Curvegrid has announced a pair of collaborations aimed at broadening enterprise adoption of digital assets across Asia, targeting cross-border payments in the Philippines and institutional risk management. The Tokyo-headquartered firm has partnered with risk advisory specialist Continuum to address Web3 insurance gaps, while simultaneously joining
payments
Mizuho Bank has completed bilateral test transactions with UBS across the financial messaging cooperative Swift's blockchain-based shared ledger, joining the banking sector's initiative to industrialize tokenized commercial bank deposits for international trade and wholesale finance. The trial environment interconnected Mizuho Bank and UBS to execute
payments
SBI DigiTrust, a blockchain infrastructure provider under the SBI Group, has entered into an agreement with South Korean payment processor NICE Information & Telecommunication and blockchain infrastructure developer DSRV to conduct joint feasibility testing for cross-border stablecoin transactions between Japan and South Korea. The initiative aims to evaluate the
payments
The global economy is entering an era of "Agentic Commerce," wherein autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents conduct 24/7/365 cross-border economic transactions across languages and time zones without manual human intervention. To support this paradigm, financial settlement infrastructure must undergo a structural evolution toward "on-
payments
Circle Internet Group has officially launched the public mainnet for Arc, its institutional Layer-1 blockchain network designed for high-speed settlement, tokenized asset movement, and automated economic applications. Japanese powerhouses SBI Group and Sumitomo Corporation have joined the network’s founding validator cohort, playing a direct role in block
venture capital
Singapore-headquartered digital payments firm dtcpay has finalized a USD 25 million Series A funding extension. The top-up round was anchored by Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Group, investing through its subsidiary SBI Ventures Asset Pte Ltd and the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund. The Series A round was