weekly
Welcome to the one hundred eighth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. The digital banking landscape has become a little clearer. This week, Money Forward and MUFG ended their factoring joint venture, Biz Forward, with Money Forward making it a wholly owned subsidiary. A few days later, SMBC and Money
weekly
Welcome to the one hundred seventh edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. While we thought the prior week was extreme, the past week gifted us two of the best 20 return days of the TOPIX, and one of the worst 20.....since 1968! By this point, you will also have
weekly
Welcome to the one hundred sixth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. What a week, eh? According to our friends at Goldman Sachs, the TOPIX’s 11.8% decline over the six trading days from Friday, March 28, to Friday, April 4, 2025, is the 35th largest decline since 1968,
security token
BOOSTRY has published the Japan Security Token Market Report for FY2024. In FY2024, Japan's security token market continued to expand, although the total amount of public security token offerings (STO) was limited to approximately 47% compared to the previous fiscal year, largely influenced by widespread caution surrounding discussions
weekly
Welcome to the one hundred fifth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Happy new fiscal year! There were a few deals that still had to get done before the end of March, with insurance and regional banking being especially busy. Congratulations and best of luck to anyone who started a
weekly
Welcome to the one hundred fourth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Happy second birthday to us! What started as a personal effort to keep our fingers on the pulse of the Finance & FinTech ecosystem is now being shared with more than 15,000 subscribers (12,500 on LinkedIn
security token
TIS, a member of the TIS INTEC Group, and Kyoto Table Tennis Club have issued digital corporate bonds called "Kaguya Smile Token" through private placement, using TIS's platform "STLINK" which comprehensively supports the issuance and management of security tokens. Kyoto Table Tennis Club operates
weekly
Welcome to the one hundred third edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. The Bank of Japan meets for its Monetary Policy Meeting this week. The consensus is for no change in the policy rate. The Nikkei reports real wages down 1.8% in January, the first time in negative territory
capital markets
Nomura Research Institute, Nomura Securities, BOOSTRY, DeCurret DCP, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation collaborated on the issuance of a digital bond using a new settlement scheme, and executed a proof-of-concept for Japan's first securities settlement using digital currency. These steps would expand the market for digital securities and
weekly
Welcome to the one hundred second edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. A big thank you to everyone who made it to Tokyo for the core of Japan Fintech Week 2025, and especially those who joined us for our meetup on Monday, the most international participation we have ever had!
digital assets
Hitachi, together with NTT Digital, OPTAGE, Crypto Garage, JPYC, Chainalysis Japan, Digital Platformer, NEC, Nomura, bitbank, finoject, Hokkoku Bank, and Laser Digital Japan, has begun a proof-of-concept experiment from February to April 2025 aimed at improving the effectiveness and standardization of anti-money laundering practices for digital asset trading including cryptocurrency,
tokenization
Hakuhodo DY Media Partners has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SC Ventures to explore business initiatives aimed at expanding and accelerating the overseas growth of Japanese IPs, including anime and manga, through FinTech and tokenization. About the Strategic Partnership Business study to promote expansion and acceleration of overseas business