Japanese convenience store chain Lawson will test yen-denominated stablecoin payments at its Takanawa Gateway City store in Tokyo's Minato Ward in August, in what the company describes as Japan's first stablecoin payment trial connected directly to a point-of-sale system.
HashPort, KDDI, and Lawson signed a basic agreement on July 10, 2026 to conduct the technical demonstration. Customers will use HashPort's non-custodial wallet app to display a barcode at checkout. Store staff will scan that barcode through Lawson's existing POS terminal without needing to open or manage a crypto wallet on the merchant side. HashPort's business-facing payment service will then update the customer's JPYC balance to reflect the purchase.
Lawson operates 14,697 stores in Japan and reported more than 3.02 trillion yen in net sales in fiscal year 2026. It is the third-largest convenience store chain in the country, behind Seven-Eleven and FamilyMart. The Takanawa Gateway City location, operated by KDDI, functions as the company's flagship for next-generation digital store concepts.
Why the POS link is the central question for this trial
The test is structured to answer a specific operational question: whether stablecoin payments can integrate into a standard convenience store checkout without slowing customers or adding work for employees during busy periods.
Items the companies plan to measure include system integration requirements with POS infrastructure, checkout operation considerations, payment processing time, and wallet usability. Lawson has not announced a chainwide rollout. The company said wider expansion decisions will depend on data collected at Takanawa Gateway City.
One commercial reason for the interest is transaction cost. Credit card fees in Japan typically run between 3% and 5% of the sale value. Netstars, a separate Japanese payments company that launched its own stablecoin payment service on the same day the HashPort agreement was announced, set its merchant fee at 0.98%. For a high-volume, low-margin retail business, that differential has a direct effect on profitability.
Lawson has not released fee figures for the HashPort pilot.
What JPYC is and where it already accepts payments
JPYC launched on October 27, 2025 as Japan's first registered yen stablecoin under the licensing requirements Japan introduced through amendments to the Payment Services Act in June 2023. The token maintains a 1:1 peg to the Japanese yen and is backed by 100% reserves held in yen deposits and Japanese government bonds. On-chain circulation surpassed 2 billion yen as of last week, according to JPYC.
The stablecoin operates on multiple blockchains including Avalanche, Ethereum, and Polygon. JPYC recently joined Metaplanet and Progmat for a joint study on digital credit using bitcoin, stablecoins, and security tokens.
Before the Lawson trial, JPYC saw use in smaller retail settings. Japanese okonomiyaki restaurant operator Chibo began accepting JPYC at selected stores in April. Dental clinics in Tokyo and Chiba also plan to add JPYC payments through HashPort. The Lawson test is distinct because it connects JPYC directly to a major retailer's POS infrastructure at scale.
Netstars launched a parallel multi-stablecoin service for merchants
On the same Monday the Lawson agreement was signed, Netstars opened merchant applications for Stablecoin Pay, a service that lets businesses accept USDC, USDT, and JPYC through Solana and Polygon networks with MetaMask as the supported wallet.
Merchants on the Netstars platform handle product pricing, sales records, and settlement in yen even when customers pay with dollar-denominated stablecoins. Netstars said this removes the need for merchants to hold crypto or manage exchange rate exposure. The service follows trials Netstars conducted with USDC payments at Tokyo's Haneda Airport from January to February and at a trading card store in Himeji in April.
Japan's wider stablecoin build-out running in parallel
The Lawson trial arrives as Japan's major banks move toward their own yen-denominated stablecoin services. MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Mizuho Bank plan to begin live transactions during fiscal 2026, which runs through March 2027. The banks formed a council to develop shared rules covering issuance, governance, and systems.
Japan has also expanded regulated access to foreign stablecoins. SBI VC Trade launched Ripple's dollar-backed RLUSD in June 2026 after Financial Services Agency approval. USDC distribution received regulatory clearance in March 2025. The FSA has run blockchain infrastructure tests for corporate cross-border payments through Progmat.
HashPort's wallet has accumulated more than 1.15 million downloads and is used by 84% of Japanese yen stablecoin users, according to the company's own research based on on-chain data from November 2025. The trial participants will be limited to employees from HashPort, Lawson, and KDDI.
Jordan V.
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