Digital Payments & Fintech - Japan

The 2020 PSA amendment (in force 1 May 2021) split money-remittance into Type I (over ¥1 million, requires FSA approval plus business-plan vetting), Type II (up to ¥1 million, registration), and Type III (up to ¥50,000, registration with flexible fund-protection rules).

Issuers of multi-purpose/third-party prepaid instruments and e-money must register with the FSA under the PSA; closed-loop own-business instruments and instruments valid for under six months are exempt, subject to reporting and asset-preservation obligations.

The June 2023 PSA amendments created the 'electronic payment instruments' category for fiat-pegged digital-money stablecoins; these may be issued only by licensed banks, fund transfer service providers and trust banks, while intermediaries (sale, custody, transfer) must register with the FSA.

The 2017 Banking Act amendment (effective June 2018) created 'electronic payment intermediate service providers' (covering payment-initiation and account-information/aggregation services) that must register with the FSA, and required banks to publish open APIs.

There is no standalone BNPL law; deferred-payment credit is regulated under METI's Installment Sales Act, which requires registration for installment plans exceeding two months. The amended Act (in force March 2021) relaxed credit-screening for small-limit (up to ¥100,000) certified/registered card issuers, allowing data-based screening.

Crypto-asset exchange service providers register under the PSA; the 2024 amendments to the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds fully implemented the FATF travel rule for crypto and electronic-payment-instrument service providers, with further PSA reforms taking operational effect 13 June 2026.