Japan’s Largest Railway Company Considers New Crypto Payment System for Transport Cards

Kazuhiro Tokita, representative director, board member and president at Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DeCurret, unveiled a new cryptocurrency payment system during a business presentation in Tokyo on March 27. Cointelegraph Japan reported on the presentation the same day.

The new system would enable the Suica payment card issued by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East), Japan’s biggest railway company, to be topped-up with cryptocurrency. Still, the report points out that there are no concrete plans as of press time, and that JR East is only considering the implementation. Data released by the company shows that as of the end of March last year, nearly 70 million Suica cards were issued.

According to the dedicated website, Suica is a prepaid e-money card which allows its users to pay both for some goods and services, as well as transport. As Cointelegraph recently reported, Decurret has been allowed to operate by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) since March 28.

According to Cointelegraph Japan, the trading on the exchange will start on April 16th and will involve Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP). The addition of Ethereum (ETH) support is reportedly scheduled for June or July, and both yen and Bitcoin will be supported as base pairs.

In other Japanese news, e-commerce giant Rakuten will soon launch its own cryptocurrency exchange, dubbed Rakuten Wallet, after announcing that it received the FSA’s approval on March 25.