Japan tests stablecoin retail payments at Lawson; Netstars launches

Lawson will run a pilot in August at its Takanawa Gateway City store to accept a yen-pegged stablecoin. The trial uses a non-custodial wallet developed by HashPort and integrates with the store’s point-of-sale system through a partnership with telecom group KDDI. Store clerks will not need to open or manage crypto wallets during checkout.

The pilot will test whether stablecoin payments can be integrated into a standard convenience-store checkout flow. Participants will evaluate integration requirements with existing POS systems, checkout procedures, payment processing times and end-user wallet usability. Settlements will be handled through the POS connection rather than through merchant-managed crypto accounts.

Separately, payments firm Netstars launched Stablecoin Pay and opened applications from merchants. The service initially supports USDC, USDT and the yen-pegged JPYC on the Solana and Polygon networks, with MetaMask listed as a supported wallet. Netstars set the merchant payment fee at 0.98 percent and indicated merchants can generally keep using existing payment terminals. Stores can display prices, record sales and receive settlements in yen even when customers pay with dollar-denominated stablecoins.

Netstars moved from limited pilots to a commercial service after earlier tests. The company ran USDC payment trials at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in January and February and at a trading-card shop in Himeji in April. The HashPort-Lawson-KDDI agreement was announced ahead of the Lawson trial scheduled for August.

Japan established a regulatory framework for stablecoins that took effect on June 1, 2023. The rules create categories for fiat-linked stablecoins and require intermediaries handling such assets to register with the Financial Services Agency. Since the law took effect, regulators approved USDC distribution in March 2025 and cleared JPYC as a registered fund transfer service provider before JPYC’s launch last October.

Companies involved plan to use the pilots to assess technical and operational factors and to decide whether to expand stablecoin payment options to more stores and chains.