Digital Garage, Inc.

JCB will conduct a pilot test of payments using the US dollar-denominated stablecoin USDC at Lawson stores on August 20, Nikkei reported on August 18. The pilot will be limited to selected participants at the Lawson Gate City Osaki Atrium store in Osaki, Tokyo. Users will display JCB's web payment screen on their smartphones, and store staff will scan the barcode with existing POS registers. A key feature is that no dedicated terminals are needed, allowing standard registers to handle stablecoin payments. The test uses USDC issued by Circle. JCB sees potential inbound demand, believing that if foreign visitors to Japan can use stablecoins they hold in their home countries directly in Japan, it would reduce the hassle of currency exchange. Digital Garage, which operates a stablecoin payment infrastructure, is also participating in the pilot and plans to provide its DG Stablecoin Payment Service, launched commercially on August 10, to JCB and others on a priority basis.

Digital Garage announced on August 10 that it has begun commercial deployment of its stablecoin payment platform, DG Stablecoin Payment Service, or DG SPS. The initial rollout is planned for JCB and its subsidiary DG Financial Technology, known as DGFT. DG SPS connects to existing payment operator systems via API, enabling merchants to accept stablecoin payments, starting with US dollar-denominated USDC on the Base network. The company plans to expand support to the yen-linked stablecoin JPYC, as well as Ethereum and Polygon, and is also moving toward enabling agentic commerce, where AI agents autonomously execute payments.

The EQT-led consortium has raised its tender offer price for Kakaku.com to JPY 3,450 per share, exceeding the JPY 3,384 price in a competing proposal. The revised price, up from the original JPY 3,000 per share, aims to reduce uncertainty and facilitate timely completion of the transaction. The consortium, which includes BPEA Private Equity Fund IX and Digital Garage, has already obtained all necessary regulatory clearances. The competing proposal contemplates a tender offer only commencing in September 2026 at the earliest and remains subject to various conditions, including regulatory approvals.