Japan is tying crypto policy, capital, and retail payment trials more closely together.
WebX 2026 opened in Tokyo on July 13 and drew about 15,000 attendees. Japan’s current prime minister delivered remarks at the event and reiterated that the government’s startup support package will expand funding support. The article notes that this has become a recurring pattern: former prime minister Fumio Kishida spoke at WebX 2024 about tax and regulatory reform for Web3 startups, while Shigeru Ishiba said at WebX 2025 that Web3 was at the center of a “once-in-a-century” industrial revolution.
SBI and Solana Foundation announce strategic partnership
Also on July 13, Japanese financial group SBI and the Solana Foundation jointly announced a strategic partnership to build Japan’s onchain financial market. According to the article, SBI R3 Japan will work with the Solana Foundation and existing shareholders SBI and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, and the company plans to change its name to SBI Solana Global.
Under the agreement, the new company will develop five business lines around the Solana network:
- issuance and circulation of the yen stablecoin JPYSC
- formation and circulation of corporate bonds and tokenized RWA
- cross-border payment infrastructure
- onchain financial services for institutional investors
- next-generation payment infrastructure for the AI Agent era
SBI’s recent crypto investments total nearly $500 million
The article says SBI Holdings has recently made several notable crypto investments, including a $125 million sole investment in Gauntlet, a $76 million investment in EDX Markets, and the acquisition of Bitbank for about $289 million. By the article’s calculation, SBI has committed nearly $500 million to the sector within one cycle.
It maps those deals to different pieces of market infrastructure: Gauntlet in DeFi risk management and onchain market making, EDX Markets in institutional crypto clearing, and Bitbank as one of Japan’s domestic crypto exchanges.
Lawson to pilot stablecoin POS payments
On the retail side, the article says Lawson will pilot JPYC stablecoin POS payments at one store in Tokyo’s Takanawa Gateway City in early August. That would bring stablecoin payments into a real retail setting in Japan.
It also states that SBI’s yen stablecoin JPYSC is paired with a 3% annualized lending service. Separately, Japan’s parliament plans to lower the capital gains tax on crypto to 20% from 55% by 2028.
Article frames Japan’s approach as a compliance-led buildout
Foresight’s piece argues that Japan is moving on several fronts at once: licensing, capital, retail use cases, and taxation. It contrasts that path with the U.S. stablecoin market, which the article describes as a contest between specialist issuers and traditional financial institutions, while Japan is presented as a market where major financial groups are embedding crypto businesses into their existing financial systems.
The article also mentions Japan, Hong Kong, and the UAE as jurisdictions that are intensifying work on licensing and tax frameworks, with industry competition shifting toward regulated access.