Japan’s third-largest convenience store chain joins JPYC stablecoin pilot
- Lawson, Japan’s third-largest convenience store chain, will pilot yen stablecoin JPYC payments at one Tokyo outlet starting early August.
- The trial, run with KDDI and HashPort, is Japan’s first stablecoin integration directly into a POS system, using smartphone barcode scans at checkout.
- With Lawson’s 14,697-store footprint and JPYC already expanding into South Korea, the test could mark a turning point for stablecoin adoption in offline retail.
Lawson, Japan’s third-largest convenience store chain, has announced that it will test out accepting the yen stablecoin JPYC at one of its Tokyo outlets from early August.
The pilot runs at Lawson’s Takanawa Gateway City location in Minato Ward, according to a Monday report from the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, which is also known as The Nikkei.
Customers pull up a barcode inside a smartphone wallet, and a store clerk scans it at the checkout terminal to settle the bill. Lawson says this is the first stablecoin trial in Japan wired directly into a point-of-sale (POS) system.
The POS system will enable Lawson to track how many payments were made in stablecoin and how efficient the system works, and also measure how long it will take for JPYC payments to register before making the decision for extensive rollout.
Lawson is not running the test alone. The trial is a proof-of-concept with KDDI, Japan’s second-largest telecommunications operator, and HashPort, a crypto wallet firm that handles JPYC transactions.
What JPYC is
JPYC was launched in October 2025 as the first yen stablecoin registered under the licensing rules Japanese regulators introduced in 2023. It has a 1:1 peg to the yen and runs on several blockchains, including Avalanche, Ethereum, Polygon, and Kaia. According to JPYC Inc., every issued token is fully backed by yen deposits and government bonds, in line with Japan’s Payment Services Act.
The token’s onchain circulation crossed 2 billion yen, roughly $12.36 million, last week. Its market capitalization currently sits around $16.28 million. While that is still small, JPYC’s list of physical acceptance points has grown quickly. The okonomiyaki restaurant chain Chibo added JPYC at some locations in April, and shoppers can now buy drinks with the token from Cheerio vending machines in Kyoto.
What is the significance of Lawson’s test?
Lawson operates 14,697 stores across Japan and booked more than 3.02 trillion yen, about $18.68 billion, in net sales for its 2026 fiscal year. Reaching even a fraction of that footprint would put a yen stablecoin in front of ordinary shoppers.
The Nikkei sees the trial as a possible turning point, as widespread adoption by Lawson will also lead to an increase in Japanese stablecoins adoption in offline retail.
JPYC is also looking beyond Japan as the issuer reportedly signed memorandums of understanding last month with LINE NEXT and Danal to build out real-world payments in South Korea, aimed partly at foreign visitors spending in areas like beauty and fashion.
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Hannah Collymore
Hannah is a writer and editor with nearly a decade of blog writing and event reporting experience in the crypto space. At Cryptopolitan, Hannah contributes to the news page, reporting and analyzing the latest developments in DeFi, RWA, crypto regulation, AI and frontier tech industries. She graduated from Arcadia university with a degree in Business Administration.
