Japan FinTech Observer #74
Cutting through the noise of Japanese Finance & FinTech

Japan FinTech Observer #74

Welcome to the seventy-fourth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer.

We will host the Japan FinTech Observer weekly call again on Monday evening, starting at 8pm JST on LinkedIn Audio. You can find this week's event here.

Canadian Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT), with one-fifth of the stores but 1.5x the market capitalization, is making a bid for 7&I Holdings. "Japan’s M&A scene may never be the same again," says Leo Lewis in the Financial Times.

The partnership of the Astar Foundation and Sony is due to launch Soneium, an Ethereum Layer 2. The ASTR token remains at less than half recent highs, and at about a quarter of a spiky peak. With an abundance of Layer 2s already in the market, this move smells like the "not invented here" syndrome.

The Fed will cut interest rates in September, and the JPY closed Friday nearer to USD 1.40 than to 1.50. Or, in other words, we are still just about where we started the year, when analysts were predicting up to six US rate cuts. Among the analysts we follow, there remains a split opinion regarding the next BOJ move: October or January.

Otherwise, here is what we are going to cover this week:

  • Venture Capital & Private Markets: M&A rebound signals a new era for corporate dealmaking in Japan, according to J.P. Morgan; MUFG Bank will make an additional investment in DMI Finance — a digital financial services business in India; the Cool Japan Fund (CJF) has decided to commit up to USD 20 million to a fund that invests in Japanese startups seeking global growth; GMO VenturePartners participates in India's TransBnk - Transaction Banking Platform Series A
  • Insurance: Dai-ichi Life and Microsoft have entered into a multi-year strategic global partnership
  • Payments: OBC, a developer of core business systems, and PayPay have concluded an MoU for digital salary payments
  • Banking: MUFG Bank has sold 24 million shares of U.S. Bancorp common stock; MUFG Bank also signed a Framework Agreement (FA) with the Ministry of Digital Technologies of Uzbekistan; the Financial Services Agency, in conjunction with the National Police Agency, requested additional measures to prevent the fraudulent use of savings accounts; the Financial Services Agency held several meetings with Japanese financial industry groups in July 2024, covering a wide range of topics
  • Capital Markets: the Tokyo Stock Exchange has provided a comprehensive update on its governance activities; Carbon EX has formed a business alliance with Tohoku Bank; Dojima rice futures started trading, and a listing ceremony was held this week
  • Digital Assets: Sony Block Solutions Labs is building a public Ethereum layer 2, with the Astar Foundation as a strategic partner, other launch partners are Alchemy, Chainlink, Circle, Optimism Foundation, and The Graph; Japanese Firm Metaplanet Buys Another $3.4 Million in Bitcoin; Casio announced a collaboration with the move-and-earn Web3 lifestyle app STEPN GO
  • The Last Word: Grok


eXponential Finance Podcast

eXponential Finance Podcast with Professor Stephen Nagy

We have released the 140th edition of the eXponential Finance Podcast, featuring a discussion with Professor Stephen Nagy based on his latest edited volume, "Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific Construct."

This episode is available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music, and many other major platforms via our Spotify Podcaster Page.


Venture Capital & Private Markets

J.P. Morgan: Japan-related M&A


Insurance

eXponential Finance Live with Terence Ho, Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer at Nanoinsure

  • We hosted an eXponential Finance LinkedIn Live session with Terence Ho , Co-Founder & Commercial Officer at Nanoinsure Technology Group , an insurance platform provider that has recently entered the Japanese market; the recording of the discussion is available on the Tokyo FinTech YouTube channel
  • Dai-ichi Life and Microsoft have entered into a multi-year strategic global partnership to accelerate digital innovation and the organization’s transformation into the “Insurance services business” beyond the current traditional life insurance business; the vision for the Dai-ichi Life Group in fiscal 2030 is to become №1 in Japan in the 4 areas of “Customer satisfaction”, ”Employee satisfaction” , “Services innovation” and “Enterprise value”, as well as to become an insurance group in the global top tier and a leader in the future of the insurance industry


Payments


Banking


Capital Markets

Household financial assets by 5-year age brackets


Digital Assets

DAO Tokyo 2024


The Last Word - Grok

Grok, draw me a picture of a peaceful Japan. I just had nothing else to say today.


If you would like to see more of our content, please head over to the Tokyo FinTech YouTube Channel or check out the eXponential Finance Podcast. Registrations for the Tokyo FinTech Meetup have moved to Luma.

We have also created two LinkedIn groups, the "Japan Startup Observer" if your interest in Japan goes beyond FinTech, and the "FinTechs of India" to capture the developments on the subcontinent. We invite you to join both these groups.

Have an awesome week ahead.

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