Why Japan’s Payments Are About to Change Fast

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Japan is often seen as a “mature” financial market.
But the real story is in what’s quietly shifting underneath.

In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, Arjun is joined from Tokyo by Pieter Franken (Co-Founder & CEO at GFTN Japan) to unpack what’s actually changing in Japan’s fintech and digital assets landscape and what it means for founders, investors, and global players looking at the Japan opportunity.

They go deep on stablecoins and why Japan may be ahead on regulation, the upcoming move to classify crypto and digital assets as financial instruments, and why payments remain fragmented despite Japan’s innovation legacy. The conversation also explores what could unlock faster adoption (from interoperability to cost structures), how Japan’s national digital ID rollout could become a foundational layer, and why Japan–MENA collaboration is still early but strategically important.

🎙️ In this episode:
• What’s really changed in Japan fintech over the last 12 months
• Stablecoins in Japan: regulation, launches, and why it matters now
• The big shift: crypto moving from “non-financial” to “financial instrument”
• Why Japan’s payments ecosystem is still fragmented (and what could fix it)
• Open banking, consumer adoption, and the cost problem for merchants
• The digital ID layer Japan is finally accelerating (MyNumber)
• Japan–MENA corridors: where collaboration is real vs. where it’s early
• What to expect at GFTN Forum Japan 2026: AI, tokenization, and cross-border corridors

👉 Watch the full conversation to understand what’s brewing in Japan, why regulation is setting up the next phase of digital assets and payments, and where the real opportunities could emerge next.

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CHAPTERS
00:00 Japan fintech beyond the stereotypes
01:05 Who Peter Franken is + what GFTN Japan does
02:20 What shifted in Japan over the last 12 months
03:10 Stablecoins: why Japan is moving early
05:00 Crypto reclassification: what changes when it becomes a financial instrument
08:10 Open banking reality check + what’s still missing
10:10 Cash vs digital payments: Tokyo vs the rest of Japan
12:20 Interoperability problem: too many silos, too many rails
14:10 What could unlock faster adoption (cost, standards, stablecoins, points)
16:30 Digital ID (MyNumber) as Japan’s DPI foundation
22:10 Japan–MENA corridor: what’s real today, what could grow next
28:40 What to expect at GFTN Forum Japan 2026 (AI, tokenization, corridors)