A Lawson convenience store in Tokyo processed a 322 yen payment in JPYC on Aug. 6 in what was presented as Japan’s first stablecoin payment test at a convenience store. The transaction took about five seconds from barcode scan to completion at a Lawson location in Takanawa Gateway City, and the printed receipt listed the payment method as “stablecoin.” Settlement ran on Polygon.
The test was led by HashPort, with KDDI and Lawson taking part. The three companies had signed a basic agreement on July 10. The stablecoin used in the trial was JPYC, which the article described as Japan’s first yen stablecoin to obtain registration as a funds transfer operator with the Financial Services Agency.
No hardware changes to the checkout terminal
One of the main points in the trial was that the store’s register did not need extra hardware for stablecoin payments. Customers used HashPort Wallet, a non-custodial wallet where users hold their own private keys. On the merchant side, HashPort Wallet for Biz was embedded into the existing POS system, so the store did not need to open or manage its own wallet.
The payment relay layer came from PAYTREE, a multi-code payment gateway operated by Canal Payment Service. After the barcode was scanned, PAYTREE passed the payment data to the wallet service provider for balance verification and authorization, and the transaction was then settled on Polygon.
HashPort said the payment was also Japan’s first gasless stablecoin payment, meaning the user did not need to prepare a separate token for onchain fees. The article added that both “Japan first” claims had not yet been verified by a third party.
For retailers, the structure addresses a practical deployment issue. Stores do not need to replace their equipment or retrain staff, because the payment flow stays inside the existing checkout process.
The test was not open to ordinary shoppers
The rollout remains limited. The Aug. 6 trial was open only to employees of HashPort, KDDI and Lawson, and regular customers visiting the store could not use JPYC for payment.
JPYC itself is still at an early stage. According to the article, issuance formally began on Oct. 27, 2025. As of July 10, its onchain circulation had just exceeded 2 billion yen. It is currently deployed on Kaia, Polygon, Ethereum and Avalanche. JPYC Representative Director Noritaka Okabe has set a target of bringing outstanding issuance to 10 trillion yen within three years.
The article framed the gap between a 322 yen test purchase and a 10 trillion yen issuance goal as something that goes beyond the technical side, pointing instead to whether people will actually choose to use JPYC from their wallets at convenience-store checkouts.
Second test phase set for Aug. 17
A second phase has already been scheduled for Aug. 17 at Lawson Gate City Osaki Atrium. That phase will add support for the MetaMask wallet and expand the accepted assets from JPYC to USDC and USDT.
HashPort also plans to add support for multiple wallets and privacy-payment features, while expanding use cases into food service, retail and the service sector. The article said two dental clinics in the Kanto region are already piloting the integration.
The store was already designed as a future-format test site
The Takanawa Gateway City location where the payment was tested is itself a future-format store called “Real×Tech LAWSON,” built through a collaboration between KDDI and Lawson. The store has been used to test new retail ideas, making it a fitting site for the first convenience-store stablecoin payment test in Japan.
What the article says about JPYC
The article said JPYC maintains a 1:1 value with the Japanese yen and has been in issuance since Oct. 27, 2025. It is currently deployed across Kaia, Polygon, Ethereum and Avalanche.
As for when the broader public will be able to use stablecoins at Lawson, the article did not provide a full commercial launch date. It only stated that the Aug. 6 test was limited to employees of the three companies and that the Aug. 17 phase will widen support to MetaMask, USDC and USDT.