East Japan Railway Company (JR East), Japan's largest railway company that transports millions of people to their destinations every day, is considering launching a new crypto payment system to accept cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as payment. Japan is the ideal market for a transportation conglomerate to integrate the currencies since crypto money is known to the general public.
The new crypto payment system makes it possible to top up the Suica ticket issued by the railway company with a cryptocurrency. The national public transport ticket is used for various payments, including subway tickets. At the end of March 2018, around 70 million Suica cards were issued.
Japan as the second largest cryptocurrency market
ANN News reports that JR Group is currently considering launching a cryptocurrency company. According to the report, the company likely wants to set up its own crypto exchange or other system to process payments, similar to Rakuten.
Rakuten, known as the largest e-commerce company in Japan, acquired the Japanese crypto exchange called “Everybody's Bitcoin” for $2 million last year. It is now part of Rakuten's subsidiary called Rakuten Payments.
Local analysts speculated that the Japanese e-commerce giant acquired the exchange to potentially integrate crypto payment options into its platform in the future without passing on the profits to a third party such as a cryptocurrency exchange or payment service provider.
By setting up its own company, East Japan Railway Company (JR East) can generate a new source of income in the form of transaction fees from cryptocurrency payments.
Japan remains the second largest market for this type of currency, largely due to the forward-looking and open-minded approach of Japanese regulators towards cryptocurrencies andBlockchain technology.
