Japan Leadership Intelligence, Case Study
Wise, Revolut and Airwallex all started in Japan with the same basic money transfer licence. Today one settles directly with the Bank of Japan, one has been through a business improvement order and a leadership reset, and one has only just started selling. The difference had less to do with the licence than with who ran Japan and when.
Foreign fintechs coming to Japan usually start with a Type 2 funds transfer registration (資金移動業, shikin idō gyō). It lets you move money, but caps each transfer at ¥1 million and rules out deposits, lending and most of what a neobank sells elsewhere. Getting it is a known process. What a company does after it gets it is where these three stories split.
Three companies, one starting point
| Wise | Revolut | Airwallex | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan entity | 2014 | Dec 2017 | Apr 2018 |
| Type 2 registration | By 2016 launch | 2018 | Sep 2025 |
| Open to customers | Sep 2016 | Sep 2020 | Nov 2025 (card acceptance) |
| Where it is now | Type 1 licence, Zengin member, settles with the Bank of Japan | Bank agent for Minna no Ginko, new holding company, new CEO | Accounts and corporate cards still not offered in Japan |
| Japan head | Mika Sei, Country Manager | Daisuke Aranami, CEO since Jul 2026 | Ken Uchiyama, Country Manager |
Wise: eight years of regulatory groundwork
TransferWise set up its Japan company in 2014 and launched in September 2016, after what it described as a couple of years getting approval. It launched under the ¥1 million cap and spent the next eight years taking it apart.
The steps came one at a time: a business product in 2018, online ID checks in 2020, the multi-currency account the same year and a card in 2021. In March 2024 Wise got a Type 1 licence, which lifted the limit per transfer to ¥150 million. In October 2024 it became the first non-bank approved to join Zengin (全銀), Japan's domestic bank payment system. By November 2025 it was connected directly and settling with the Bank of Japan.
The person running Japan through most of that is Mika Sei (勢井美香). She joined in June 2020 as Banking and Expansion Lead, after about ten years at Amex and Expedia and six years leading risk and compliance at Square Japan. She was a director by 2021 and Country Manager by 2024. She isn't a classic sales Country Manager. She's someone who knows how Japanese banks and regulators work, which is what Wise needed for the job it was doing.
Revolut: a fast start, then a business improvement order
Revolut registered in 2018 and said it would launch in early 2019. It opened to everyone in September 2020, about eighteen months late, without the crypto, stocks, insurance and junior accounts it sold in Europe.
In September 2022 the Kanto Local Finance Bureau issued a business improvement order (業務改善命令, gyōmu kaizen meirei) after an inspection found serious problems. The bureau said the board wasn't functioning. Customer ID checks had been handed to the parent company, which passed them on again without the Japan unit keeping track. And there were anti-money laundering breaches. Revolut closed out the order in November 2023.
Around the same time, Revolut's founder told Bloomberg that its expansion into each country had been quite ad hoc. The Japan unit had about 40 staff and roughly 80,000 users against a target of a million, with half the staff moved into risk and compliance.
The leadership tells the rest of the story. Christina Yoko Makiguchi, who came from electronic trading at Mizuho, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, led Revolut in Japan from 2021. In July 2026 Revolut appointed Daisuke Aranami (荒濤大介) as CEO, citing a new management structure and stronger governance. His career runs through the Ministry of Home Affairs, McKinsey, CSO and CFO at Tokyo Star Bank, Bain Capital, Apple, co-head of Stripe Japan and head of financial services at Microsoft Japan. Makiguchi moved to lead a new business at a sister company. Revolut had already set up a holding company in Japan in 2025 and became a bank agent for Minna no Ginko in August 2026. It hasn't said it is applying for a banking licence, but a former bank executive who started in government is the kind of leader you hire if you are heading that way.
Airwallex: seven years from company to registration
Airwallex set up its Japan company in April 2018 and was collecting payments in Japan through Deutsche Bank by 2020. Its own funds transfer registration only came in September 2025. When it announced it in November, card acceptance was live but the global accounts and corporate cards that drive its business elsewhere were not available in Japan.
The Country Manager is Ken Uchiyama (内山憲), who left Mastercard Japan, where he was Country Manager, in 2025. Airwallex's own job ad for the role described Japan as a new market. Globally Airwallex is anything but new. It raised at an $8 billion valuation in late 2025 with revenue over $1 billion. In Japan, it is starting now.
What the hires say about each strategy
Put the three Japan heads side by side and each one fits the stage the company was in.
- Wise was building payment infrastructure, one licence and one connection at a time. It kept a compliance and banking insider in charge for years, and the infrastructure got built.
- Revolut grew first and sorted out governance under regulatory pressure. Its latest hire is a former bank CSO and CFO who started his career in government, a profile that fits if the next step is becoming a bank.
- Airwallex waited until it had a licence, then hired a payments network Country Manager with relationships across Japanese issuers and merchants. That is a go-to-market hire for a company that is ready to sell.
What I'd take from it
- In regulated markets, the first Japan leader may not be a seller. Wise's progress came from someone who understood banks and regulators. A sales-first Country Manager would have had very little to sell for years.
- Japan regulators expect the Japan board to run the Japan company. Revolut's order named a board that wasn't functioning and checks handed off to head office. A Japan head needs real authority over compliance, not just the title.
- Expect the profile to change as the licence changes. All three companies needed a different kind of leader at each stage. That's worth planning for when you make the first hire, so the second one isn't a surprise.
Sources
- Wise Japan corporate information (Japanese): wise.com
- TransferWise launch in Japan, September 2016: fintech.global
- Wise Type 1 licence, March 2024: newsroom.wise.com
- Wise approval to join Zengin, October 2024: newsroom.wise.com
- Wise direct Zengin connection, November 2025: thefintechtimes.com
- Wise on building in Japan, profile of Mika Sei, August 2026: wise.jobs
- Revolut Singapore and Japan licences, November 2018: fstech.co.uk
- Revolut launches in Japan, September 2020: techcrunch.com
- Kanto Local Finance Bureau business improvement order, September 2022 (Japanese): lfb.mof.go.jp
- Revolut on closing the order, November 2023: blog.revolut.com
- Bloomberg on Revolut in Asia, November 2022: bnnbloomberg.ca
- Revolut Technologies Japan CEO appointment, July 2026 (Japanese): prtimes.jp
- Revolut holding company in Japan, October 2025 (Japanese): businessinsider.jp
- Revolut as bank agent for Minna no Ginko, August 2026 (Japanese): k-tai.watch.impress.co.jp
- Airwallex Japan company profile: digima-japan.com
- Airwallex Japan registrations: help.airwallex.com
- Airwallex Type 2 registration announcement, November 2025: airwallex.com
- Mastercard Japan leadership change, July 2025: mastercard.com
- Airwallex Series G, December 2025 (Japanese): 36kr.jp
Research note: AI assisted with research and drafting. Murray Clarke reviewed the analysis and remains responsible for its conclusions. Licence dates, leadership changes and regulatory actions come from the regulator, company releases and the press coverage listed, read in English and Japanese in October 2026. Views on hiring are his own. Source links may later become unavailable if publishers move or remove their pages.
