Amid global geopolitical uncertainties and slowing domestic growth, Japan offers Singapore fintech sector scale, capital, and a pragmatic pathway for
By Tokio Morita, Executive Director, FinCity.Tokyo
The ongoing market gyrations amid geopolitical uncertainties may tempt Singapore startups and fintechs to pause and await the unwinding of political and trade friction. However, companies that do that when the world feels unsettled are often overtaken by those who continue to move, adapt, and invest.
Against a backdrop of global political noise—from unpredictability in the US to broader geopolitical fragmentation—the case for Singapore fintechs to look to Japan is not about chasing stability, but about pursuing structured, policy-supported growth, where demand is clear and long-term, argues FinCity.Tokyo Executive Director Tokio Morita.
Attending the Singapore Fintech Festival in November last year, I was struck by the energyand innovative capacity of Singapore’s fintech sector. However, as also cautioned by Sopnendu Mohanty of the Global Finance and Technology Network, the industry is confronting the realities of maturity within a small domestic market after a decade of rapid growth in digital payments, wealthtech, and insurtech. The time has come for Singapore fintechs to expand beyond national borders.
This is not a challenge of innovation. Singapore’s fintech ecosystem remains among the most advanced globally, supported by strong regulation, credible supervision, and deep technical talent. The challenge is scale. Sustainable growth now requires access to larger markets, institutional capital, and enterprise clients with complex, long-term needs. Tokyo — a city with deep capital pools, a huge concentration of financial institutions, a fast-growing market for digital finance, and access to skilled finance and engineering talent — is relevant to Singapore fintechs seeking their next phase of expansion. We complement each other so well. Together we can be one, full-stack ecosystem.
Singapore Fintechs
Japan’s financial sector is undergoing a deep structural recalibration in which digitalisation and internationalisation are key priorities. Our government’s proactive support for innovation and partnership has triggered strong momentum. Our fintech market is estimated to grow 14.1% annually to JPY 4.5 trillion (S$36.5 billion) by 2033. The Web3 economy is forecast to grow twentyfold to JPY 2.4 trillion over the 2021-2027 period. A university endowment fund of JPY 10 trillion is channelling resources into research and technology commercialisation. Against this backdrop, I see Singaporean fintechs bringing innovation and precisely the type of global outlook that we seek under our “Global Financial City: Tokyo” vision, with funding from Japan’s institutional capital and corporate venture arms.
Looking globally, closer Singapore–Tokyo collaboration would strengthen Asia’s fintech resilience amid geopolitical tensions and enable our region to powerfully shape global fintech norms in digital identity, payments, data privacy, AI governance, and more, rather than continuing to rely on external standards.
One of Tokyo’s most compelling advantages is its capital depth. Japan hosts one of the world’s largest pools of household and institutional financial assets, underpinned by long-term savings and a strong institutional investor base. According to Bank of Japan data from end-September 2025, Japanese households collectively hold financial assets amounting to JPY 2,286 trillion. In parallel, the Government Pension Investment Fund, widely recognised as the world’s largest pension fund, manages approximately JPY 260 trillion in assets.These figures underscore Japan’s importance not only as a consumer market, but as a centre of institutional capital.
For fintechs operating in asset management technology, sustainable finance solutions, AI-enabled risk analytics, or institutional digital infrastructure, access to this capital would be transformational. These are precisely the areas where many Singapore fintechs have developed strong domain expertise yet face limitations when attempting to scale solely within domestic or regional retail markets.
Regulatory accessibility, once perceived as a barrier to entering Japan, has also improved significantly. The Financial Services Agency’s (FSA) sandbox enables firms from outside Japan to trial solutions in digital assets, decentralised finance, and Web3, while its Financial Market Entry Office provides English-language regulatory consultation. Improvedtransparency around licensing pathways, compliance expectations, and supervisory engagement, particularly for technology-enabled financial services, reduces uncertainty for Singapore fintechs accustomed to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s principles-based regulatory approach.
FinCity.Tokyo works alongside the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to support this openness by helping international firms navigate entry requirements, understand institutional expectations, and identify opportunities for partnership with Japanese financial institutions and corporates. This kind of coordination is especially relevant for Singapore fintechs that have outgrown accelerator programmes but require structured support to engage effectively with a large and institutionally oriented market.
Commercial demand in Japan reinforces the case for expansion. Japanese banks, insurers, asset managers, and large corporates across manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics are accelerating digital transformation amid labour shortages, ageing demographics, and rising compliance complexity. These pressures are driving demand for enterprise-ready solutions in areas such as cybersecurity, digital identity, payments infrastructure, and much more.Singapore fintechs with proven B2B capabilities are well positioned to respond to these needs, particularly through structured proof-of-concept and partnership platforms that allow technologies to be tested and adapted in real operating environments.
What emerges is a natural complementarity between two leading Asian financial centres. Singapore offers speed, experimentation, and dense innovation networks. Tokyo provides scale, institutional capital, and long-term policy stability.
Regardless of global and trade gyrations, we stand ready to support the journey of Singapore fintechs that choose to engage.
