By TAKASHI MOCHIZUKI
March 16, 2015 9:32 p.m. ET
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/rakuten-starts-accepting-bitcoin-1426555942Rakuten Starts Accepting Bitcoin
TOKYO—Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. has started accepting bitcoin for purchases in the U.S., adding momentum to the rapid growth of cryptocurrencies as a form of payment.
Customers using the company’s virtual shopping mall in the U.S. site can already buy items using the Internet-based currency, a Rakuten spokesperson in Japan said Tuesday.
Rakuten executives have previously said the company’s Germany and Austria units will allow payment by bitcoin starting in the second quarter of this year.
Many major U.S. companies have already embraced bitcoin, but Rakuten is one of the first major Japanese companies to accept the virtual currency for payment.
While many Japanese companies agree that bitcoin is a convenient payment method for both customers and merchants because it significantly reduces handling fees, most of them are reluctant to adopt it due to concerns over possible fraud and authorities’ unclear stance on the regulation of bitcoin.
In Japan, Mt. Gox, once the world’s largest bitcoin exchange, collapsed last year and lost customers’ assets worth half a billion dollars, dealing a major blow to the currency’s public image.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, meanwhile, has decided that the government won’t regulate bitcoin and won’t assign any regulatory bodies to oversee the virtual currency ecosystem. While venture companies welcomed the news, executives at larger companies said the move made it difficult for them to start accepting bitcoin because they want a government agency as a watchdog. Otherwise they would face trouble should unfavorable incidents occur.
Rakuten has been open and passionate about bitcoin’s potential use, hosting several panel talks dedicated to the subject at a recent financial conference hosted by the company. It has also invested in Bitnet Technologies, a bitcoin startup based in San Francisco.
Rakuten’s biggest moneyspinner is its Japanese site, but that isn’t open to bitcoin yet. Rakuten’s chief executive Hiroshi Mikitani said last month he plans to roll out the bitcoin function to the Japanese market as well, although when it would do so is “a trade secret.”
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