Tokyo: Asia's next FinTech hub, with Morris Iwai

How to Lend Money to Strangers

Brendan le Grange

Credit, Fintech, Management, Lending, Banking, Business, Careers

5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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 Asia
Digital 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/brendanlegrange

Or see this all happening in the flesh by attending one of these great upcoming events: Japan Fintech Festival, Sushi Tech Tokyo, or Fintech Summit

Need 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-24

If 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

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In Japan there's been a lot of emphasis and support from the government to kind of push FinTechs and attract foreign investment
0:08.0	with Tokyo being the next FinTech hub, hopefully in Asia. I was going to get engaged in Tokyo.
0:19.0	I had the ring in my pocket. It was springtime, the cherry blossoms were out.
0:25.8	We were in a rowing boat on the moat around the Imperial Palace. I think I might have even
0:31.2	had a little drink of Japanese whiskey to calm my nerves, but we were also shattered.
0:36.0	So I held that for another day, but still, Japan is a fascinating place.
0:42.0	Welcome to how to learn money to strangers with Brendan LaGrange. Morris EY all the way from Tokyo Japan today. Welcome to the show. Thanks Brendan.
1:03.0	Now Morris, Japan is not a market I know well myself, but it's also not a market that I know many people working in.
1:10.0	So talk to me about that path that brought you to where you are today in Tokyo.
1:15.0	Sure, just to give some background.
1:16.5	I'm originally from Los Angeles, but I had the opportunity to work both in U.S. and Japan
1:20.8	throughout my career.
1:22.1	20 plus years, primarily with Citigroup in their credit card business, both here in Tokyo as well as New York.
1:29.0	But what really brought me to Japan is my roots here in Japan. So I've been traveling back and forth between
1:34.6	US and Japan since I was little and I've always been fascinated by the market and the
1:40.2	country and the people and how it's so different from US and other Western
1:44.2	market so after college I decided to move to Japan and start my career here.
1:48.8	Yeah Morris, you spoke about being fascinated by the market. I think that that is what it is. It's a fascinating market and I think quite unique because
1:57.8	Japan feels at once very familiar but also entirely alien. I mean I remember growing up in South Africa and the daily news
2:06.0	reports would include an update on the Nikke market and the exchange rate to the
2:10.2	yen. The Japanese market was a pillar of the global economy.
2:15.0	And if I think to all three of my degrees at some stage or another, there's been a case study on the Japanese housing and mortgage situation and deflation and inflation.
	...

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