Japan Fintech Festival 2024

Held last March 4-8 in Tokyo, the Japan Fintech Festival (JFF) brought together Japanese and global communities to engage, connect, and collaborate on financial technology innovation. The event was organized by Elandi and formed a part of the Japan Fintech Week 2024 that was in conjunction with the FIN/SUM 2024 hosted by the Financial Services Agency and Nikkei.

The primary goal of JFF is to serve as a platform that unites Japanese and global policymakers, technologists, business leaders, and investors. By doing so, JFF aims to enhance Japan’s digital economy and global competitiveness while addressing economic and structural challenges specific to the financial industry. It also aims to foster and actively cultivate an inclusive, cross-border, and innovation-driven ecosystem that is fuelled by Japan’s public and private sectors.

JFF, along with the entirety of the Japan Fintech Week 2024, endorses Prime Minister Kishida’s strategy to invigorate Japan’s FinTech sector. His vision of a New Capitalism comprises four key steps: 1) the reformation of Japan’s financial and capital markets; 2) upskilling the workforce; 3) scaling up investments in both critical and key emerging areas; and 4) a 5-year plan to bolster the start-up ecosystem by supporting 100K start-ups and 100 unicorns by 2027.

In the plenary address by Ravi Menon, former managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, he highlighted the four trends that Japan should closely monitor. These key trends, which he believes have the potential to reshape the global economy and financial system, are 1) swift, cost-effective electronic payments; 2) efficient financial architecture via distributed ledgers and tokenization; 3) generative AI’s impact on finance; and 4) the emerging potential of quantum technologies. As his last note, Ravi also urged for more initiative in sustainability.

A total of six presentations and two networking parties took place over the five-day event with delegates from globally recognized enterprises in attendance. These included those from YAN Fund, Luxembourg House, SMBC Group, Lyodssoft Singapore, FinTech Convergence Council, Finance Innovation, Copenhagen Fintech, FinTech Poland, and Singapore FinTech Alliance.

The JFF is curated by Sopnendu Mohanty, Chairman of Elevandi and Chief FinTech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore; Takeshi Kito, Co-Founder and CEO of JFF; and Pieter Franken, Co-Founder of Safecast and JFF. Their advisory board is composed of global leaders from Microsoft Japan, EqualFuture Corp, FINOLAB, TP ICAP Japan, Kazea Capital, and CFTE.

For more information on the Japan Fintech Festival (JFF), please visit their website.