Japan Bitcoin Industry Co., Ltd. (JBI) has launched Aurora, a self-custodial Bitcoin payments platform built to help Japanese companies sell to international fans who are frequently shut out by traditional payment systems.

The company introduced the product at this week's Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong, aiming to reach an audience it says could not be serviced before. The premise is simple: anime, manga, games and other Japanese content command a massive global following, but the payment rails supporting that content have not kept pace.

香港で開催中のbitcoinasiaに当社取締役の加藤( @btc_dakara ) が登壇します。ビットコインとステーブルコインの関係について登壇者の方々とお話しいたします。 — 日本ビットコイン産業株式会社 (@JBIinc_bitcoin) August 27, 2026

Aurora is designed to close that gap. International customers pay in Bitcoin over the Lightning Network, a payments layer built on top of Bitcoin that went live in 2018 and is designed to settle small transactions near-instantly and at low cost, while Japanese merchants receive a simple point-of-sale and API layer for managing invoicing, payment tracking and integrations.

According to JBI, the market for Japanese anime content outside Japan reached ¥2.17 trillion in 2024, up 26% year over year — yet many overseas fans still struggle to pay for streaming subscriptions, digital merchandise and limited-access drops because of geographic payment restrictions. That friction has deep roots: many Japanese digital services have historically accepted only domestically issued payment methods, and the Association of Japanese Animations' annual industry reports have tracked overseas sales — driven in large part by the spread of global streaming — as a consistent growth engine for the industry.

The platform's core design principle is that JBI never touches the money. Each merchant operates its own self-custodial Lightning node and receives Bitcoin directly from customers. JBI says this arrangement gives businesses a cleaner regulatory footing, since the company does not act as a custodian, while still handling the harder operational lift — node uptime, liquidity, accounting and auditing, and conversion to fiat — that has historically kept enterprises from adopting Bitcoin payments on their own. The custody distinction carries particular weight in Japan, which has licensed cryptocurrency businesses under its Payment Services Act since 2017 and applies registration and compliance requirements to firms that handle customer assets.

JBI says Aurora draws on lessons from its existing consumer business, UseBitcoin.jp, which for the past two years has let customers buy digital gift cards — including au PAY, V-Preca and Kyash cards — using Lightning payments.

The company is inviting media, prospective merchants and wallet providers to connect with its team at Bitcoin Asia 2026 in Hong Kong.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.