Fintech

KDDI, one of Japan's leading cellphone service carriers, and convenience chain operator Lawson on Monday agreed to a mobile payments partnership.

Messaging app provider Line Corp. on Monday started a new service that allows users to transfer money to bank accounts via its smartphone payment platform, a first for Japan in a crowded market.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan's largest bank, plans to launch a mobile payment service with staffing company Recruit Holdings using the bank's digital currency after regulatory constraints stymied its solo plans.

Toshiba, the Japanese conglomerate that two years ago was pressured by activist investors to restructure its operations in one of the country's most controversial corporate sagas, may soon join the ranks of hedge funds by becoming one itself.

Japan's Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings will help run Asia's first full-fledged market for digitized securities in Singapore, Nikkei has learned, serving as a bridge for Japanese companies and investors to the blockchain-based trading platform.

Startups are continuing to grow in Japan, with a Nikkei survey finding the estimated corporate value of the 20 leading newer businesses increased 22% to exceed a combined value of 1 trillion yen ($9.2 billion) in the year to September. Growth is especially notable in the artificial intelligence and financial technology, or fintech, areas.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange will update its trading platform to mitigate wild price swings and to better handle trades made at the closing bell in order to cope with the rise of high-frequency trading and passive index investing.

Japan's big, established brokerage houses are opening up to blockchain -- the technology behind bitcoin -- in a growing recognition of its game-changing potential despite a year and a half of setbacks for cryptocurrencies.

Leading Japanese brokerages will form an organization Tuesday to set rules for issuing blockchain-based digital securities that represent a new way of raising capital from assets like real estate.

Cross-border payment startups are rushing into Asia as deregulation of the sector has enabled online services to operate in the region, in a major threat to existing banks.