Tokyo strengthens market entry support for Malaysian, ASEAN fintech innovators

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FINCITY.TOKYO, the financial promotion body for Tokyo, is intensifying efforts to help fintech start-ups scale into the Japanese capital’s rapidly evolving financial ecosystem as Japan’s fintech market is projected to grow 14.1% CAGR to US$30.2 bil (RM126.8 bil) by 2033 (iMarc Group, 2024).

Towards this end, FinCity.Tokyo will host a Fintech Insight Session on Nov 13 at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025 (SFF 2025) to address how it can help ASEAN and global fintech outfits build a second home in the world’s fourth largest economy.

Themed “Unlocking Tokyo: The next wave in Fintech and DeFi”, the session will explore how fintech innovation can be accelerated through sandbox collaboration, digital asset frameworks and Japanese capital inflows into Southeast Asia.

Representatives of start-ups will be present at the roundtable to talk about their journey with FinCity.Tokyo.

“With ASEAN’s fintech market projected to exceed US$150 bil (RM630 bil) by 2030 (Bain & Company, 2022) and Japan standing as the region’s third-largest foreign investor, the momentum for deeper collaboration has never been stronger,” enthused FinCity.Tokyo’s executive director Tokio Morita.

FinCity.Tokyo’s executive director Tokio Morita

“ASEAN’s fintech sector is gaining strong momentum and cross-border expansion is the natural next step in its evolution.”

Added Morita: “Japan brings not only capital but also the credibility of a well-established regulatory environment and deep institutional trust. Our goal is to help fintechs from Singapore, ASEAN and globally build their second home in Tokyo.”

Robust growth prospect

According to Japan’s Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry the country’s Web3 economy is estimated to grow more than 20-fold to 2.4 tril yen (RM65.86 bil) by 2027.

Its Financial Services Agency (FSA) is taking a proactive role in driving fintech innovation with its regulatory sandbox open to both local and international start-ups, including those from ASEAN.

This initiative allows fintechs to test new business models in a flexible, low-barrier environment that accelerates market entry and cross-border collaboration.

On this note, FinCity.Tokyo complements these efforts through hands-on support for fintech expansion into Japan by working closely with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Invest Tokyo platform.

To date, FinCIty.Tokyo has supported start-ups such as ADDX, a Singapore-based company that provides a platform for security tokenisation.

Today, ADDX has relationships with Japanese investors and financial institutions such as Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings, Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) and the Japan Investment Corporation.

The public-private financial promotion body for Tokyo has also helped Lydia.ai, a start-up that uses cutting-edge AI (artificial intelligence) technology to gain insights from untapped and unconventional data source to enable healthcare and financial institutions predict and manage risks. – Oct 30, 2025

The post Tokyo strengthens market entry support for Malaysian, ASEAN fintech innovators first appeared on Focus Malaysia.

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