One of Japan’s largest banks has just unveiled NFT plans

by James · July 27, 2022

When was the last time you heard of a strictly Japanese NFT project? How many Japanese NFT artists can you name making big waves in space?

Of course, it’s the 9-year-old Zombie Zookeeper. However, NFTs haven’t really been met with much enthusiasm in Japan. And frankly, this is quite surprising.

First, there is an upcoming NFT collection based on Hi Kitty franchise, and a number of prominent Japanese game developers have already jumped into the space. For example, Square Enix is launching an NFT for the universally loved dieselpunk classic Final Fantasy VII. However, the reception that even these big names have received has been rather lukewarm.

Aside from the popularity of Axie Infinity in the country, there hasn’t been much enthusiasm for NFT projects in Japan. But that may soon change —- at least in the financial sector.

Japanese banking institution Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) just announced that it is working to bring a variety of NFT and crypto-related services to its millions of customers in Japan. Its first step? Marketing of Web3 itself.

Hashport helps with SMBC’s first steps into Web3. On the company’s website, Hashport describes itself as “a public utility that facilitates the movement of digital assets between networks in a fast, secure and cost-effective manner.” Included in Hashport’s suite of services are various tokenization solutions and list services, which will be fully utilized in SMBC and Hashport’s upcoming business token lab.

Ultimately, through this lab, SMBC hopes to engage its vast customer base in surveys, conduct research, and act as an advocate for cryptocurrencies and NFTs in Japan. In particular, SMBC hopes that the research and data collected by its business token lab, as well as efforts to promote decentralized finance locally, will enable it to establish its own token business in the near future.

SMBC also indicated that it has an interest in providing Web3 consulting services to its customers along the line. The company also notes that it eventually plans to issue NFTs to its customers. But exactly which NFTs this might be remains to be seen.

With Japan’s dominance in the arts, entertainment and video game industries, wider Web3 adoption and acceptance among Japanese consumers and companies could benefit the entire world.