New V Point spurs corporate economic bloc race in Japan

Competition among corporate groups in Japan is intensifying further as they strive to expand their economic influence through shared reward points that are usable across industries and companies.

In April, T Point from Culture Convenience Club merged with V Point from Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, creating the new V Point program. With a combined total of 150 million members, the new V Point is competing with reward point programs operated by major telecommunications companies to become the most widely used program in daily life.

The reward point market in Japan is characterized by heightened competition among major players. Rakuten Point from e-commerce giant Rakuten Group, d Point from telecom giant NTT Docomo and Ponta Point all boast around 100 million member IDs. The shareholders of Ponta Point's operating company include top-tier businesses such as trading house Mitsubishi, convenience store operator Lawson and telecom service provider KDDI. Meanwhile, PayPay Point, linked to major telecom company SoftBank, had 64 million identity-verified registered users as of June.