Japan FinTech Observer

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-second edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. What a difference a year makes! After last year's LDP leadership election, which Ishiba won in a run-off against Takaichi, the TOPIX sold off -3.5% and the Japanese Yen strengthened from ¥146 to below ¥142 to the US Dollar. This year, after Takaichi beat Koizumi in a run-off, the TOPIX strengthened about 3.25%, and the Japanese Yen weakened from ¥147.5 to over ¥150.

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-eighth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. We are up to the neck in earnings season, and have included ten quarterly reports in this edition. Among them, Infcurion and Sony Financial (again) present their first results as a public company. We will cover the mega banks in next week's edition. If you would like to get the report immediately once published over the next day or so, please subscribe to the "instant" version of the Japan FinTech Observer on our .

Welcome to the one hundred thirtieth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Last week, the World Athletic Championships took place in Tokyo, putting the Olympic Stadium finally to the grand use it was designed for (including an audience!). Whether inspired by the athletic performances or not, the Bank of Japan stretched themselves into launching the divestment phase for the approximately 7% of equity market capitalization they have accumulated in the form of ETFs...

Welcome to the one hundred forty-first edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Last week, we were delighted to participate in the "ICT & FinTech Mission to Tallinn" this past week, courtesy of EIS | Enterprise Estonia. As we are settling down back home, we are iteratively reporting on the very insightful discussions on the FinTech Observer website. While we were away, the expectations for the next Bank of Japan policy rate raise have decisively moved to December given Ueda's comments at the b

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-fourth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Another day, another record high for the Nikkei 225 - by the time I hit "send" on this weekly report, we might well have crossed the 50,000 index level for the first time. Obviously, one of the reasons to drive this performance is the perceived return of political stability, with Takaichi being sworn in today (October 21) as Prime Minister.

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-third edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. What a difference a week makes! For last week's edition, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Takaichi, coming fresh off her victory in the LDP presidential election, would become Japan's first female prime minister. As Komeito has formally left the 26-year long coalition, that outcome is still likely, but a little less so. With Trump's announcements coming after the Japan market close on Friday, and being retracte...

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-ninth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. We are hearing that now is the best time since the pandemic to visit Kyoto. You will still see some late autumn foliage, the Japanese Yen is moving closer to its 160 JPY/USD ceiling (or beyond 180 JPY/EUR) if you are a foreign visitor, and Chinese tourists have all but disappeared. Was tackling overtourism on your bingo card for Takaichi's first actions? A supplementary budget certainly was. Coming in at JPY 17.7t

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-seventh edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. The convergence is happening. The Financial System Council Working Group on Crypto-Assets has come to the conclusion that forcing crypto investments into the Payment Services Act, and is working on an approach to migrate the relevant parts to the Financial Instrument and Exchange Act (FIEA). At the same time, the Digital Asset Co-creation Consortium" (abbreviated as DCC, with 315 member organizations), hosted by ...

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-sixth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. A couple of items from the rumor mill, as they seem to have escaped the inner circle of confidentiality. First, Revolut is working on obtaining a banking license in Japan. Prior to being sanctioned with a business improvement order in September 2022 (the work on which was completed by November 2023), Revolut was working on obtaining a securities brokerage license, but has put the latter on hold...

Welcome to the one hundred fortieth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Congratulations to the team at Wise, who became the first money transfer operator to complete integration with the Zengin interbank-settlement network. The timing could not have been better, as we are spending this week in Estonia, courtesy of Enterprise Estonia, to assist with building FinTech bridges to Japan. We will have a lot to share next week! Here is what we are going to cover this week:Venture Capital & Priva

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-fifth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. There is a fair chance that you have read more than your fair share of characterizations of what Takaichi is and is not, and what her policies will or will not be. As always, we encourage you to go to the primary source, in this case "The LDP & Japan Innovation Party Coalition Agreement", both in summary form and full translation.

Welcome to the one hundred thirty-first edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. We tried to have the publication of our weekly report co-incide with quarter-end (at least that is this week's excuse), and follow the first two trading days of the spun-out Sony Financial. After an indicative price on Friday of around 150 yen, which set the permissible trading range for Monday, the stock reached a high of 206 yen during the morning session, and has been fallen ever since, closing Tuesday...