Lawson, a Japanese convenience store chain, will launch a proof-of-concept trial of yen-denominated stablecoin payments at its Takanawa Gateway City store in Tokyo.

The trial marks Japan’s first stablecoin payment demonstration integrated with a point-of-sale system and will help determine whether Lawson proceeds with official adoption based on results.

The test will use JPYC, Japan’s yen-backed stablecoin, integrated directly with Lawson’s POS in a single Tokyo store.

JPYC’s on-chain circulation has surpassed 2 billion yen, signaling growing use of the currency.

JPYC joined a joint study with Metaplan and Progmat to explore digital credit using bitcoin, stablecoins, and security tokens.

The information comes from Nikkei and The Block, with standard disclosures about independence and financial reporting.

JPYC is backed by 100% reserves in yen deposits and government bonds, in line with Japan’s Payment Services Act.

Netstars launched Stablecoin Pay to enable merchants to accept multiple stablecoins — USDC, USDT, and JPYC — across Solana and Polygon, with MetaMask as the wallet.

The pilot involves collaboration with KDDI and HashPort, signaling broad industry interest in crypto payments at mainstream retailers.

Regulatory and market developments include government-backed cross-border payment testing and the launch of other stablecoins in Japan, such as RLUSD, highlighting rising institutional participation.

Major Japanese banks are preparing yen-stablecoin services and aim to start live transactions within fiscal 2026, signaling increased regulated stablecoin activity.

HashPort is enabling wallet-based payments via staff-scanned barcodes at the POS to update JPYC balances during transactions.