Editor’s comment: please note that we have moved over the individual articles to our own platform. We will continue publishing the weekly digest on Medium. However, if you would like to subscribe to articles as they are published, we invite you to do this here.Welcome to the ninety-fourth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer.We apologize for the tardiness of this week’s newsletter. Let’s just say the editorial team has been…decimated. Not by alien invaders (though with this cough, I wouldn’t rule it out), but by a microscopic menace with a penchant for tissues and daytime television: the flu.Apparently, sharing is caring, and our team took that to heart by sharing a single, potent strain of influenza. Picture a petri dish, but instead of agar, it’s filled with lukewarm coffee and discarded drafts. That’s our office right now.So, why the delay? Well, typing with oven mitts on (to avoid germ spread, naturally) is challenging. Also, most of our newsletter this week was accidentally written in feverish gibberish about sentient houseplants and the merits of chicken soup IV drips. It was…poetic, in a delirious kind of way. Sadly, not fit for public consumption.We’re slowly emerging from our blanket cocoons, smelling vaguely of menthol and regret. We promise to return to our regularly scheduled programming next week, assuming we haven’t mutated into something that requires Hazmat suits to approach. Until then, please wash your hands (for the love of all that is holy, wash your hands!) and pray for our sinuses.Here is what we are going to cover this week:Venture Capital & Private Markets: SBI Holdings is poised to acquire a controlling stake of around 70% in German FinTech Solaris for approximately €100 million; MUFG Innovation Partners participates in Endowus’ Series C extension; Cross Capital has invested in “Airbus Ventures Fund IV”; Pacific Meta has made an investment in Sonzai LabsBanking: UBS targets Japan’s regional banks with senior sales hires; Saison OMNI rebrands to Aumnee (definitely a more inspired move than the recently disclosed new Jaguar brand)Payments: Central Bank Digital Currencies from a Japanese legal perspectiveCapital Markets: Interest rates, interest rates, M&A on the rise, and bond market due diligenceAsset Management: PayPay Asset Management will cease operations in September 2025; Apollo Global Management plans to expand in Japan; Blue Owl Capital appoints Head of Japan Private WealthDigital Assets: Capital Group becomes Metaplanet’s third-largest shareholder; Binance Japan is adding three new cryptocurrencies for an industry-leading total of 59The Last Word: Real Wages keep fallingVenture Capital & Private MarketsSBI Holdings is poised to acquire a controlling stake of around 70% in German FinTech Solaris for approximately €100 million, as part of a larger €150 million fundraising round; this deal, expected to close this month, significantly reduces Solaris’s valuation from i
