Stripe Now Supports Furikomi, Konbini Payments in Japan

Stripe, a financial services and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company, now supports two forms of payments in Japan via one integration, the company announced Friday (April 15).

Furikomi, a popular bank transfer method, and Konbini, a global convenience store payment option, are available through Stripe.

“Stripe is providing technology solutions that help Japanese businesses digitally transform and save days of work each year,” said Daisuke Aranami, country lead for Stripe Japan, in a statement.

By enabling bank transfers in Japan, Stripe has become the only fully unified SaaS solution that consolidates payments, billing, invoicing and revenue management tools into one complete platform, he added.

Furikomi allows businesses to transfer money safely from their bank accounts. Stripe said these transfers are critical for the $10 billion SaaS industry to manage recurring payments.

Still, bank transfers can create challenges for companies, which must reconcile payments manually from a variety of bank accounts with separate invoices. It is exacerbated for SaaS platforms that charge recurring fees.

With Stripe, Furikomi can automate and integrate payments. As a result, businesses no longer must reconcile outstanding invoices with ledger entries at the close of each month.

In addition, Stripe’s Furikomi solution promises to make it easier to complete refunds. Most bank transfer products do not support refunds in the same way that card payments do.

Stripe also supports Konbini payments at more than 34,000 outlets in Japan. Konbini payments allow consumers without access to cards, or who prefer cash, to pay for online purchases at convenience stores.

Konbini payments comprise 18% of the almost $167 billion annual online business-to-consumer (B2C) payments in Japan.

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