Japan’s push to bring cryptocurrency payments into everyday retail took another concrete step this year, with payments infrastructure provider NETSTARS confirming plans to integrate Singapore-based crypto wallet imToken into its Stablecoin Pay merchant network. The partnership adds another major wallet provider to a system already reshaping how Japanese convenience stores, restaurants, and other physical retailers handle digital currency transactions, and it reflects just how quickly Japan’s regulated stablecoin market has moved from isolated pilot tests to genuine multi-wallet commercial infrastructure over the past year.
NETSTARS, Japan’s leading QR code payment aggregator operating under NetStars Co., Ltd., built its reputation through StarPay, a widely used cashless payment platform connected to more than 1.6 million point-of-sale terminals across the country and central to Japan’s unified JPQR code standard. That existing merchant footprint is exactly what makes NETSTARS’ stablecoin push notable, since it isn’t building payment infrastructure from scratch but rather layering stablecoin acceptance directly onto a network retailers already use daily. The company launched its dedicated Stablecoin Pay service on July 13, opening merchant applications to accept USDC, USDT, and JPYC, Japan’s yen-pegged stablecoin, initially processing transactions through the Solana and Polygon blockchain networks with MetaMask as the first supported wallet.
The imToken integration builds directly on that foundation. According to NETSTARS’ own stated roadmap, the company planned to add support for Aptos, Bitget Wallet, and imToken starting from summer 2026, alongside plans for merchant-presented QR payments to follow later. Bringing imToken into the fold matters given the wallet’s substantial user base across Asia, and its Singapore headquarters adds a genuinely international dimension to what has largely been a domestically focused Japanese payment infrastructure buildout up to this point. For merchants using NETSTARS’ system, the practical benefit of supporting multiple wallets rather than locking into a single provider is straightforward: broader wallet compatibility means fewer customers turned away at checkout simply because their preferred crypto wallet isn’t supported.
What makes NETSTARS’ approach commercially interesting is how deliberately it shields merchants from the operational complexity typically associated with cryptocurrency transactions. Under the current system, merchants can continue using their existing payment terminals rather than adopting entirely new hardware, and settlement happens in Japanese yen regardless of whether a customer pays using a dollar-pegged stablecoin like USDC or USDT, or the yen-denominated JPYC. Merchants see product prices, sales records, and settlement amounts all displayed in yen, effectively insulating store operators from having to manage currency conversion or hold cryptocurrency balances directly. NETSTARS has set its merchant payment fee at 0.98 percent, a rate positioned to compete with traditional card processing fees while offering the additional appeal of faster settlement times that blockchain-based payments can provide compared to conventional card networks.
This expansion didn’t happen in isolation. NETSTARS has been steadily building toward broader stablecoin adoption through a series of earlier pilots, including USDC payment trials at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport back in January and February, followed by a test at a trading card shop in Himeji in April, before scaling up to the commercial Stablecoin Pay launch in July. The company also signed a memorandum of understanding with Allscale in June 2026 specifically aimed at advancing multi-stablecoin merchant infrastructure, laying groundwork for exactly the kind of expanding wallet ecosystem now bringing imToken into the fold.
NETSTARS isn’t operating alone in pushing stablecoin payments into Japanese retail either. Convenience store chain Lawson, which operates more than 14,000 locations across Japan, has run its own parallel stablecoin pilot in partnership with blockchain firm HashPort and telecom provider KDDI, testing yen-pegged stablecoin payments at its Takanawa Gateway City and Osaki Atrium locations using a non-custodial wallet integrated directly into Lawson’s point-of-sale system. That trial specifically tested whether store clerks could process stablecoin transactions without needing to open or manage crypto wallets themselves, a critical usability question for any payment technology aiming for mass retail adoption rather than remaining a niche option for crypto enthusiasts. Separately, Digital Garage has launched its own commercial DG Stablecoin Payment Service aimed at major payment providers including JCB, and Netstars has also explored partnerships with blockchain networks Aptos to build additional Web3 payment applications on top of its existing infrastructure.
The regulatory backdrop underpinning all of this activity shifted meaningfully on June 1, when Japan’s revised Payment Services Act introduced a formal regulatory framework specifically designed for stablecoins, encouraging intermediaries to register with the Financial Services Agency. That regulatory clarity has functioned as a genuine catalyst, giving payment companies and retailers the confidence to move from limited experimental pilots toward actual commercial deployment, since operating within a clearly defined legal framework significantly reduces the compliance risk that previously made Japanese businesses cautious about touching cryptocurrency-adjacent payment technology.
For everyday Japanese consumers, the practical impact of all this infrastructure building will likely become visible gradually rather than all at once. As NETSTARS continues adding supported wallets like imToken alongside its existing MetaMask, Aptos, and Bitget Wallet integrations, and as more retailers beyond Lawson experiment with their own stablecoin pilots, paying for a convenience store purchase with a dollar-pegged or yen-pegged stablecoin could become a genuinely unremarkable checkout option rather than a novelty confined to isolated trial locations. Whether that adoption curve accelerates meaningfully over the coming year will depend heavily on how smoothly these expanding wallet integrations perform in real-world, high-volume retail settings, precisely the kind of operational stress testing NETSTARS’ proof-of-concept trials at Lawson locations were specifically designed to evaluate.
Further detail on NETSTARS’ Stablecoin Pay service and its expanding wallet partnerships is available through the company’s official platform. For more coverage of fintech and digital payments innovation across Asia, visit Business Tech.
