Japan's Stablecoin Wave: "Lawson, Third-Largest Convenience Store, Launches Payment Experiment"

Lawson Launches Pilot Program in Tokyo

"Official Adoption Will Follow After Results Are Reviewed"

LDP Commits to Developing Stablecoin Infrastructure

Lawson, Japan's third-largest convenience store chain, is set to launch a stablecoin payment experiment. As Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is fostering stablecoins as next-generation financial infrastructure, it appears that the private sector is also rapidly expanding the scope of their use.

Lawson Convenience Store in Japan. Yonhap News Agency

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) on July 13, Lawson will partner with digital asset wallet provider HashPort to trial a payment method using the yen-pegged stablecoin "JPYC" at its Takana Gateway City branch in Minato-ku, Tokyo, starting in August. When a customer presents a barcode within their smartphone e-wallet, the staff will scan it using a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, and HashPort will deduct the stablecoin balance after processing the payment information.

The experiment will assess POS system integration, actual payment speed, and operational stability. Lawson explained that this is the first demonstration in Japan of stablecoin payments linked to POS systems. Based on the results, the company will decide whether to officially adopt this method.

A stablecoin is a digital currency pegged 1:1 to legal tender, and its main advantage is lower transaction fees compared to credit cards. In a report published in September last year, Citigroup projected that the total global issuance of stablecoins would grow from 282 billion dollars in 2025 to 1.9 trillion dollars by 2030, raising the upper limit from the previous forecast of 1.6 trillion dollars. In the most optimistic scenario, the upper projection reaches 4 trillion dollars.

Last month, Japan's ruling LDP adopted a policy to expand the use of yen-based stablecoins for payments in the Asia region, known as the "Next-Generation AI·On-Chain Financial Initiative." The plan includes expanding the use of yen-based stablecoins and tokenized deposits, as well as supporting a joint stablecoin issuance project among Japan's three major megabanks. It also requests that the Financial Services Agency (FSA) formulate a five-year development roadmap.

Nikkei also reported that Japanese retailers are gradually increasing the range of use cases. In April, the okonomiyaki restaurant chain "Chibo" introduced JPYC payments at some locations, and this month, dental clinics in Tokyo and Chiba are also set to adopt the same payment system.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.