Digital Garage & Tokyo Tanshi launch a blockchain financial services JV

Digital Garage, a Japanese listed company engaged in diversified online businesses, including venture investment, online advertising, and e-commerce payment services, and The Tokyo Tanshi Co Ltd, which is a provider of brokerage services in the interbank market, have announced a plan to establish Crypto Garage, a joint-venture for researching, developing, and commercializing blockchain financial services in the Fintech field.

Tokyo Tanshi is a financial institution with over 100 years of experience, mainly in intermediary and brokerage services in the interbank transaction and open markets. It is involved in a wide range of markets including the short-term money, bond, and commercial paper markets, as well as the foreign exchange and interest/stock derivative markets via its group companies.

Digital Garage and Tokyo Tanshi entered into a cooperative-industry partnership in November 2017, intent on creating new Fintech businesses built from DG Lab’s R&D and Tokyo Tanshi’s financial market expertise.

It is hoped the establishment of the ‘Crypto Garage’ joint-venture business (capitalized with 30 million yen) will allow “maximum usage” of Digital Garage and Tokyo Tanshi’s individual strengths says Tokyo Tanshi President Shoji Ushiro — accelerating R&D on advanced financial services and use cases leveraging blockchain and encryption technology.

"We are starting full-scale measures to take on the challenge of developing blockchain technologies and other finance businesses, and of offering advanced financial services. We will support the healthy growth of the industry by developing numerous use cases, and also work to accelerate financial innovation from Japan.”

Established in 1995 as a specialist in internet businesses, Digital Garage has a long history of innovative collaborations and engaging in projects that have been recognized as "Japan’s first" endeavors in their respective genres. A recent crypto collaboration with the Hidashin Association, for example, has seen the launch of Sarubobo Coin—a regional cryptocurrency available in specific areas, including Takayama City—through a smartphone application. A Sarubobo is a baby monkey doll that is made in Japan’s Hida region.

In a press release announcing its partnership with Tokyo Tanshi in 2017, Digital Garage detailed its wider ambitions beyond Japan’s borders: “This new venture will drive the market by allowing companies that issue and circulate points and cryptocurrencies to expand their operations throughout Japan by linking them to Tokyo Tanshi’s network of banks inside and outside of Japan.”

With the establishment of the joint venture, Digital Garage CEO Kaoru Hayashi says the two companies will start offering “world-leading blockchain financial services from Japan”

About the author

Masayuki Tashiro is the President & CEO of FISCO Digital Asset Group. He has worked as an analyst providing assessments on futures, options, cash equity, and overall market and index movement since 2010 and currently works as an analyst with a focus on cryptocurrencies. He holds a Master of Financial Technical Analysis and is a regular commentator on the Nikkei CNBC television channel, and a frequent contributor to economic magazines such as Forbes Japan.

‘Crypto Garage’ joint venture seeks to monetize blockchain financial services in Japan and beyond