Japan is an uncommon blend of known and unknown: I drive a Nissan, you might drive a Toyota, my TV is a Sony, and since my time in Hong Kong, my go-to beer on hot days is an ice-cold pint of Asahi... but I know little about their FinTech scene. So, to set that right, I sat down with Morris Iwai, a seasoned business executive with 20+ years of experience in the credit card, consumer lending, and payments industries of the US, Taiwan, Singapore, and, of course, Japan.Morris shares that experience - and some hard numbers - as we cover:An overview of the credit card and payments markets in Japan Tokyo, the new Fintech Hub in AsiaDigital Payment trends and the push towards cashless Insight on the Japanese consumer mindset The rise of BNPL and leading players in Japan Acceleration of e-commerce spend Challenges with the credit underwriting process  The state of Open Banking in Japan The impact of Digital Wallets and QR payment providers Future of payments in Japan and new opportunities You can find Morris on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/morris-iwai/And while you're there, come and find and connect at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanlegrangeOr see this all happening in the flesh by attending one of these great upcoming events: Japan Fintech Festival, Sushi Tech Tokyo, or Fintech SummitNeed help launching your startup in Japan? Check out www.launchstarz.com/ for more details.Meanwhile, my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is discussed at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24If you have any feedback or questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me via the contact page on this site.Keep well, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.