• From enterprise users to startups, Japanese businesses of all sizes can now accept Furikomi and Konbini payments through a single Stripe integration.
  
• Stripe’s fully automated Furikomi integration saves Japanese businesses days of work each year.
  
• Stripe now supports Konbini payments at 34,000 convenience stores across Japan.
  

TOKYO—Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for businesses, today announced that it supports two important forms of payments in Japan: Furikomi, a highly popular bank transfer method, and Konbini, the ubiquitous convenience store payment option.

Now through a single integration, businesses of all sizes can use Stripe’s platform to accept Furikomi and Konbini payments, in addition to credit and debit cards. The expansion further accelerates Stripe’s growth plans in Japan.

Leading enterprises like KDDI Web Communications, Japan’s global telecommunications pioneer and a Fortune 500 company, hailed the development.

“Our service requires bank transfer support, and we decided on Stripe because of its well-organized API and extensive documentation,” said Kengo Ito, general manager of platform business design at KDDI. “Our engineers love Stripe because they can easily switch between development and production environments. The fact that global-level security is guaranteed was also very reassuring.”

B2B companies can easily implement Furikomi through Stripe

Furikomi lets businesses securely transfer funds directly from their bank accounts. It is the most widely used payment method for B2B transactions in Japan, with ten times the volume of B2C transactions. Ninety-six percent of B2B transactions are done through bank transfers, worth almost $3 trillion annually.

Furikomi transfers are especially critical for the $10 billion SaaS industry, as a way to manage recurring payments. However, bank transfers can create operational challenges for businesses, which have to manually reconcile payments from different bank accounts with individual invoices. This problem is exacerbated for SaaS platforms that charge fees on a recurring basis.

Stripe’s support for Furikomi modernizes the experience. With fully automated and integrated Furikomi payments, businesses no longer need to scramble at the end of each month to reconcile outstanding invoices with bankbook entries. Stripe’s Furikomi solution also makes it easier to handle refunds. Currently, most bank transfer products do not support refunds in the same way that card payments do. With the addition of Furikomi, businesses can partially or even fully refund bank transfers all within the Stripe dashboard.

“Stripe is providing technology solutions that help Japanese businesses digitally transform and save days of work each year,” said Daisuke Aranami, country lead for Stripe Japan. “By enabling bank transfers in Japan, Stripe has become the only fully unified SaaS solution that consolidates payments, billing, invoicing, and revenue management tools into one complete platform that also integrates with a business’s CRM, ERP, and other third-party systems.”

Reaching millions more consumers with Konbini payments

Stripe also announced its support for Konbini payments at more than 34,000 outlets across Japan. Konbini payments allow consumers who don’t have access to cards, or who prefer to use cash, to pay for online purchases at their local convenience stores. Konbini payments make up 18% of the nearly $167 billion annual online B2C payment volume in Japan.

Stripe enables business owners to allow customers to pick the convenience store closest to them using accurate, up-to-date instructions in their preferred language. Additionally, Stripe has made it possible to refund Konbini payments automatically for the first time.

Stripe’s announcement also means that Japanese small businesses can now easily accept Konbini payments. Previously, only large businesses could afford the bespoke negotiations, onboarding, and integration costs associated with each Konbini chain.

“Japanese shoppers, like consumers everywhere, are choosing to buy and pay for their purchases using the channels, platforms, modes, and apps they prefer the most,” said Makoto Tahara, country head and director of Shopify Japan. “By making convenience store payments available as a payment method, Stripe is helping to further enhance the shopping journey and experience for Japanese consumers and merchants alike.”

Accelerating momentum and investment in Japan

In 2021, tens of thousands of new businesses in Japan started using Stripe, joining existing enterprise users like All Nippon Airways, DeNA, and Nikkei. The addition of Furikomi and Konbini payments marks the next chapter in Stripe’s expanding commitment to support Japanese businesses.

“These payment method integrations were made in Japan, to be used by the world,” said Daniel Heffernan, head of product for Stripe Japan. “Stripe helps Japanese businesses go online and expand internationally, while also enabling global companies to grow in Japan. There’s still much to do and we’re committed to supporting Japan’s aspiration to become the most advanced digital nation in the world.”

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