JCB, Digital Garage and Lawson to trial USDC payments in stores

JCB Co., Ltd., Digital Garage, Inc. and convenience store operator Lawson, Inc. have signed a basic agreement to run a proof-of-concept testing in-store payments using the US dollar-pegged stablecoin USDC at Lawson locations in Japan. The trial will assess whether consumers, particularly inbound visitors, can pay at physical checkout counters by presenting a stablecoin payment barcode on their smartphones.

The PoC will use the Consumer-Presented Mode: a barcode displayed on a customer’s phone will contain the stablecoin wallet address and will be scanned by Lawson’s point-of-sale terminals. Canal Payment Service Co., Ltd. will provide the code-payment processing technology that connects Lawson’s POS to JCB’s stablecoin system. JCB will provide the customer-facing payment screens and the barcode generation function. Digital Garage will supply payment APIs, backend systems and technical support during the trial.

Under the agreement JCB will accept users’ stablecoin payments, aggregate sales proceeds, convert the funds and settle to merchants in fiat currency so merchants receive traditional currency rather than holding stablecoins. Lawson will host the PoC in stores and carry out integration work between its POS systems and JCB’s service.

The trial will focus on use cases in which inbound visitors to Japan pay in US dollars via USDC. The partners will test payment speed, convenience and integration with existing checkout flows, and will examine settlement workflows between stablecoin systems and merchant banking processes.

The PoC follows a January 2026 collaboration between JCB, Digital Garage and Resona Holdings to explore social implementation of stablecoin payments in Japan. The current trial is part of that wider effort to test technical and operational steps needed for merchant adoption.