Mizuho Bank plans to launch a payment service

 

Mizuho Bank plans to launch a payment service for the metaverse virtual world in fiscal 2023, becoming the first Japanese bank to offer such a service.  Mizuho Bank's payment service for the metaverse will be called Metaverse Coin and allow individual customers to make payments in virtual worlds using the platform of Mizuho's J-Coin Pay smartphone payment service. The Metaverse Coin system aims to provide a stable payment method by linking it to a bank account, addressing the common reliance on cryptocurrencies or credit cards for payments in the metaverse. The bank intends to collaborate with game companies and other businesses to enable users to shop in their metaverse services and for retailers within the metaverse to receive immediate payments through the new system. The launch of Mizuho Bank's metaverse payment service reflects the growing recognition of the metaverse as a significant market with increasing economic activity. Japanese open metaverse infrastructure, called Ryugukoku, is backed by Fujitsu, TBT Lab, Mizuho Financial Group, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, among other banking and tech players. In October 2022, the PM announced that Japan would invest in digital transformation services such as NFTs and the Metaverse. In November 2022, Japan's Digital Ministry announced plans to establish a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to assist government agencies in transitioning to Web3.