Japan

Japanese digital wallet provider Kyash has raised $45 million in a fundraiser to expand its mobile offerings to help Japan convert to a cashless society during the coronavirus outbreak.

Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. is investing more than $700 million in Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab, gaining access to millions across the region that use the mobile app to book cars and meals.

Tokyo-based credit card brand JCB faces a domestic battle to automate Japanese B2B payments that remain mired in old-school cash and paper, while it also tries to grow an international e-commerce network. It's a diverse set of challenges that have led the company to bring on a pair of technology partners.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s blockchain-based information network for payments is drawing the greatest interest in Japan, a country long blamed for weak measures against money laundering.

Negative benchmark interest rates are becoming commonplace in Europe and Japan. Here’s what US credit unions need to know in case that happens here.

To eke out growth in the mature payments terminal market, Square is taking its newest NFC-enabled hardware to markets outside the U.S. with heavy contactless card penetration, where some merchants are likely to be behind the technology curve.

Amaten, Japan’s largest gift card exchange platform, is expanding its current operations using blockchain in partnership with the decentralized cloud computing network and smart contract provider aelf.

One year out from hosting the Summer Olympics, Japan’s merchant base has a low ratio of contactless acceptance compared with other major markets.

FamilyMart and 7-Eleven Japan are using mobile payment technology to compete with each other and attempt to manage the country's labor shortage.

Japanese credit card brand JCB is working with Viva Wallet to build its merchant base in Europe as part of its ongoing expansion to new global markets.

With Wirecard's value tumbling since a Financial Times report two months ago alleging an accounting scandal in its Asian operations — and a followup Wednesday reporting that half of its revenue comes from "three opaque partner companies" — the German payments processor received a lift from a €900 million ($1 billion U.S.) investment from Japan's SoftBank.

Mark Karpeles, a central figure in the early days of Bitcoin who presided over the dramatic 2014 collapse of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, was found guilty of tampering with financial records but will likely avoid jail time after receiving a suspended sentence.

Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) is launching its first credit card through Japan’s expanding JCB card network, targeting young adults who like to travel throughout Asia.

Hong Kong's mobile wallet AlipayHK has expanded to enable cross-border payments for the first time in Japan and other regions of the Greater Bay Area.

The ubiquity of plastic payment cards makes it hard to imagine a future without them, but Japan’s JCB card network already envisions it.

PayPay, a mobile payments company backed by SoftBank Group Corp., Yahoo Japan Corp. and India’s largest digital-payments company Paytm, said it’s updating its app to strengthen security after multiple complaints from users of wrongful charges.

Chinese payment companies have successfully lured merchants outside of China by enabling payments for Chinese tourists, a use case Tencent hopes will work in Japan, where rival Alipay lurks.

Payments technology and fleet card provider WEX has partnered with Japanese-based international card network, JCB, as expands its virtual cards into Japan.

Indian wallet provider Paytm has entered the Japanese market in a joint venture with SoftBank Group and Yahoo Japan.

Companies have tried for years to build a market for interactive cards, with little success. Dynamics is taking a different tack by approaching banks to issue the cards, rather than selling directly to consumers.