Project XBY

Asia-Pacific · GDP rank #3

Japan

JP · JPY @ 0.0063/USD

The cashless share climbed from 21% in 2017 to 42.8% in 2024 — METI's 40%-by-2025 target hit a year early. Mobile QR codes (PayPay above all) have absorbed the bulk of incremental growth; cards — particularly credit — still carry the value. JCB retains a meaningful domestic share; Zengin is a 50-year-old rail being incrementally modernised, with Wise becoming the first non-bank to join via direct API in late 2025.

Tab 08

Pulse

The preceding ~90 days of macro, regulation, product, funding and milestone events. Each item is primary-sourced; no trade-press echo.

  1. 2 weeks agomilestone

    PayPay debuts on Nasdaq after Visa strategic partnership

    PayPay completed its US listing on Nasdaq in March, with three Wall Street firms (Jefferies, Bank of America, Wolfe Research) initiating Buy-equivalent ratings by mid-May implying 20–30% upside. The Visa strategic partnership announced 12 February has been positioned as the cross-border acceptance flywheel for PayPay's outbound product.

    • #paypay
    • #ipo
    • #visa
    • #nasdaq

    Source: American Banker

  2. 5 weeks agolaunch

    PayPay enables outbound QR payments in Taiwan via TWQR interoperability

    PayPay launched its Overseas Payment Mode in Taiwan, allowing the wallet's 65 million Japanese users to scan TWQR-tagged merchants. The corridor opens against the backdrop of record Japan-Taiwan tourist flows and is PayPay's first outbound QR market beyond the legacy Japan-Singapore NETS link.

    • #paypay
    • #twqr
    • #cross-border
    • #taiwan

    Source: SoftBank

  3. 2 months agodata

    METI: 2024 cashless ratio confirmed at 42.8%; code payments at 9.6%

    METI's official 31 March 2025 release confirmed the 2024 cashless payment ratio at 42.8% (¥141T), beating the 40% 2025 target. Credit cards remained 82.9% of cashless value at ¥116.9T; code payments climbed to ¥13.5T. A December 2025 Cashless Promotion review now publishes a dual-metric 'consumer-centric' view alongside the headline ratio.

    • #meti
    • #cashless
    • #data

    Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

  4. 2 months agolaunch

    BOJ expands tokenised-reserve blockchain sandbox ahead of CBDC decision

    Governor Ueda used the 18 March payments forum to announce an expanded BOJ 'sandbox project' for settling central-bank reserves and bank deposits as tokenised liabilities. The Bank's February 2026 review formally closed the exploratory phase of its CBDC work and concentrated effort on an integrated tokenised-money architecture; a go/no-go on retail issuance remains scheduled for the BOJ's 2027 medium-term plan refresh.

    • #boj
    • #cbdc
    • #tokenised-deposits
    • #sandbox

    Source: Bank of Japan

  5. 3 months agomilestone

    Wise goes live as first non-bank with direct Zengin API access

    Wise completed its API-based direct connection to Japan's Zengin System and now settles directly with the Bank of Japan, the first non-bank to do so. The move bypasses bank intermediaries for Wise's JPY remittance flow; Zengin opened to non-bank direct settlement in 2024 in line with G20 cross-border payment commitments.

    • #wise
    • #zengin
    • #fintech
    • #cross-border

    Source: Finextra

  6. 3 months agoregulation

    EMV 3DS now mandatory across all Japan e-commerce merchants

    METI's Credit Card Security Guidelines 4.0 reached full enforcement on 31 March 2025; one year on, JCCA's tracking puts merchant compliance above 95% and reports CNP fraud growth slowing into Q1 2026. The next enforcement focus is acquirer-side risk-monitoring obligations under a Guidelines 4.1 consultation expected in the second half.

    • #meti
    • #3ds
    • #fraud
    • #regulation

    Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry