The majority of the aging population in Japan still prefers using cash for transactions, according to a recent report citing government data. In 2023, cashless transactions in Japan totaled 126.7 trillion yen ($885 billion), accounting for 39.3 percent of all spending in the country, said the Japanese government. The government hopes that number reaches 40 percent by 2025. The Japanese government's initiative to increase cashless transactions is being supported by a Tokyo-based startup called SmartBank, which offers an app and services that make switching to cashless payments easier for people. Shota Horii (CEO of SmartBank), along with his twin brother Yuta Horii (CTO) and Jun Taketani (CXO), founded the company in 2019 after selling their previous company, Fablic, to Rakuten in 2016. While running Fablic, the three discovered that many users were still using cash for everyday financial transactions. The founders launched SmartBank in an effort to address a problem within the...
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