AZ-COM Maruwa Holdings, the Tokyo-listed logistics company that has handled deliveries for Amazon Japan since 2017, plans to settle payments with roughly 2,300 business partners using JPYC, Japan’s first fully regulated yen-pegged stablecoin. Nikkei Asia reported the plan on July 20, 2026. The company, which posted 230.5 billion yen ($1.4 billion) in revenue for the fiscal year ended March, will use the token to pay fees to subcontractors and independent truck drivers. It is the first large-scale corporate use of a stablecoin in daily operations in Japan.
A stablecoin is a digital token engineered to hold a fixed value against a currency, in this case one JPYC to one yen, so it can move over a blockchain without the price swings of bitcoin.
Key takeaways
- AZ-COM Maruwa Holdings (TSE: 9090) will pay about 2,300 subcontractors and truck drivers in the regulated yen stablecoin JPYC.
- The logistics firm reported 230.5 billion yen ($1.4 billion) in revenue for the fiscal year ended March 2026 and has delivered for Amazon Japan since 2017.
- JPYC launched in October 2025 under Japan’s Payment Services Act, holds a 1:1 yen peg, and is backed entirely by bank deposits and Japanese government bonds.
- Maruwa is weighing a formal partnership with issuer JPYC Inc. and a 1 billion yen investment in the token.
Published: July 20, 2026, 16:15 UTC
Why a trucking company reached for a token
The motive is cash flow, not crypto exposure. Japan’s road freight sector is short of drivers, its workforce is aging, and overtime caps introduced in 2024 tightened how many hours a driver can legally work. Small carriers and owner-operators sit at the end of a payment chain that can take weeks to clear.
Maruwa expects near-instant settlement in JPYC, with free conversion back to yen, to shorten that wait and make contracting work more attractive against competing employers, according to Nikkei Asia. The company is also considering a formal business partnership with issuer JPYC Inc. and a 1 billion yen investment in the token, which would make a listed logistics firm a direct stakeholder in Japan’s stablecoin infrastructure rather than just a user of it.
JPYC moves from 2 billion yen to payroll scale
JPYC is issued by Tokyo fintech JPYC Inc. and debuted in October 2025 under the Payment Services Act, making it the first yen stablecoin cleared by Japan’s Financial Services Agency. Reserves are held entirely in bank deposits and Japanese government bonds, and redemption is fixed at one yen per token.
Onchain circulation passed 2 billion yen, roughly $12.4 million, in the week before the Maruwa report, spread across about 19,000 accounts on the issuer’s exchange. That is a small float for a token whose issuer has stated a target of 10 trillion yen in circulation within three years of launch. A payables run covering 2,300 counterparties at a company with $1.4 billion in annual revenue would represent a step change in the volume moving through those rails.
The Payment Services Act amendments that took operational effect on June 13, 2026 gave the arrangement its legal footing by classifying stablecoins as electronic payment instruments and setting registration and reporting duties for issuers. Japan has been building this framework in stages, from the crypto tax and ETF bill cleared earlier this month to SBI’s tokenization deal with Ondo.
What comes next
Convenience store chain Lawson is set to run a point-of-sale JPYC pilot at its Takanawa Gateway City store in Tokyo from early August, putting the same token in front of retail shoppers within weeks of the Maruwa announcement. The two moves bracket the token from consumer checkout to business-to-business settlement.
Neither project depends on crypto prices recovering. Bitcoin traded near $64,000 on Monday and the broader market has been flat for months, yet regulated payment tokens keep picking up corporate users, a pattern also visible in Visa’s stablecoin settlement platform. The open questions for Maruwa are practical ones: how many of the 2,300 partners actually opt in, how quickly drivers convert JPYC back to yen, and whether the accounting and tax treatment holds up once the payments run at volume. Neither Maruwa nor JPYC Inc. has published a start date for the rollout.
Frequently asked questions
What is JPYC?
JPYC is a yen-pegged stablecoin issued by Tokyo-based JPYC Inc. It launched in October 2025 as the first such token registered under Japan’s Payment Services Act. Each token is redeemable for one yen and is backed by bank deposits and Japanese government bonds held by the issuer.
Why is AZ-COM Maruwa paying drivers in stablecoin?
The company wants to shorten the time between work completed and money received for subcontractors and owner-operator drivers. Settlement in JPYC is close to instant and converts back to yen at no cost, which Maruwa hopes will help it retain carriers in a market with a persistent driver shortage.
Is this the largest corporate stablecoin use in Japan?
By counterparty count it is the largest disclosed so far. Earlier Japanese stablecoin activity has been limited to bank pilots and retail trials. Maruwa’s plan covers about 2,300 partners inside a company reporting 230.5 billion yen in annual revenue, which moves the token into routine business operations.
