Convenience Stores in Japan and Korea Pilot QR Wallet and Stablecoin Payments

Stablecoin trials begin at convenience store checkouts

Japanese convenience store chain Lawson began testing payments in JPYC, a yen-pegged stablecoin, at its Takanawa Gateway City store in Tokyo from early August 2026, according to The Block. The trial involved telecom operator KDDI and crypto-wallet provider HashPort, which said it was the first stablecoin payment linked to a convenience-store point-of-sale system in Japan.

Separately, Japanese payment firm Netstarz ran its own stablecoin pilot at Lawson stores in August 2026, accepting USDT, USDC and JPYC together, South Korean outlet Hankyung reported. By October 2026, JPYC was accepted at more than 150 locations in Japan, including convenience stores, restaurants and online retailers, Hankyung said.

In South Korea, KB Kookmin Card said it had completed a stablecoin payment demonstration at CU convenience stores run by BGF Retail, working with Nice Information and Communications and Anlab Blockchain Company, according to Webeconomy. At checkout, the kiosk generates a QR code that a customer scans with a digital wallet to send a stablecoin payment; once the transfer is confirmed on the blockchain, the result is relayed back to the store's system to complete the sale, Webeconomy reported.

Separately, South Korean digital-finance firm Galaxy Money Tree said on October 12, 2026 that it had finished its own proof-of-concept for stablecoin payments integrated directly with CU's point-of-sale terminals, also in partnership with BGF Retail, according to Newspim. The system supports two modes: a merchant-displayed QR code for customers to scan, or a customer-presented barcode for staff to scan, so stores do not need separate expertise in blockchain or digital assets, Newspim reported.

How the checkout payments work

Hankyung reported that in each of these pilots, consumers and merchants exchange stablecoins directly, without routing the payment through a traditional card network. The outlet quoted a card-industry official on when such payments might become available to ordinary shoppers.

Part of a wider digital-wallet shift in Asia

The convenience-store trials come as digital wallets are already overtaking cards for everyday purchases in some Asian markets. In Hong Kong, digital wallets accounted for 45% of point-of-sale transaction value and 41% of e-commerce transaction value, five percentage points ahead of cards in both categories, according to Global Payments' 11th annual Global Payments Report, published in September 2026 and cited by ecommercenews.asia. The report projected that in-store 'payment app' value would keep growing faster than the wider point-of-sale market.

Elsewhere in Asia, cashless adoption is being driven more by government policy and bank incentives than by new payment technology, Electronic Payments International reported. Taiwan's card-payment market was projected to reach $117.7 billion in 2026, and Vietnam's government has set a target for digital transactions to make up 30% of GDP by 2030, the outlet said, while banks in Thailand are using cashback and instalment offers to encourage cashless spending.

Pilots, not yet a public rollout

None of the convenience-store stablecoin trials described above are open to the general public; the companies involved describe them as demonstrations or proofs-of-concept rather than commercial services. Hankyung's report placed the Asian trials alongside similar store-based stablecoin tests outside the region, including the Dubai and Abu Dhabi hypermarket trial and the Zurich Airport duty-free trial listed above.

In South Korea, the pilots are running while lawmakers consider a Digital Asset Basic Act that would set rules for who may issue stablecoins; Cointelegraph reported that formal deliberations on the bill were unlikely to resume quickly because of disagreements over ownership requirements for issuers. KB Kookmin Card and Japan's SBI Holdings separately said on October 13, 2026 that they were testing technology to verify the identity of AI agents making payments, and examining how Japanese tourists might eventually use stablecoins at South Korean merchants, according to eToday.

In Japan, JPYC operates under existing rules rather than a pending framework: it launched in October 2025 as the country's first stablecoin registered under licensing requirements introduced by the government in 2023, and it is backed by yen deposits and government bonds under the Payment Services Act, according to The Block.