Japan's Bitcoin Industry Launches Aurora to Help Global Anime Fans Pay with Lightning
Japan Bitcoin Industry launches Aurora for global anime fans
Japan Bitcoin Industry Co., Ltd. has introduced a new Bitcoin payments platform called Aurora. The company announced the product this week at the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong.
Aurora is built to help Japanese companies sell digital content like anime, manga, and video games to fans outside Japan. Many international customers have struggled to pay for these services because traditional payment systems often block transactions from certain regions.
Japanese anime content sold outside Japan reached a market value of ¥2.17 trillion ($14.3 billion) in 2024, up 26% from the previous year, according to the company. Despite this growth, overseas fans frequently face geographic payment restrictions when trying to buy streaming subscriptions or digital merchandise.
How Aurora works for merchants and fans
The platform allows international customers to pay using Bitcoin over the Lightning Network. Lightning is a layer built on top of Bitcoin that allows for faster and cheaper transactions.
For merchants, Aurora provides a point-of-sale system and an application programming interface (API) to manage invoices and track payments. This gives businesses a simpler way to accept Bitcoin without building their own complex infrastructure.
A key feature of the platform is its self-custodial design. Japan Bitcoin Industry states that it never holds the money. Instead, each merchant runs its own Lightning node and receives Bitcoin directly from customers.
The company says this setup helps businesses maintain a cleaner regulatory position because Japan Bitcoin Industry is not acting as a custodian, which is a service that stores and secures assets for others. However, the company still handles difficult operational tasks like keeping nodes running, managing liquidity, and converting Bitcoin into local fiat currency.
Building on existing consumer tools
Aurora draws on experience from the company’s existing consumer business, UseBitcoin.jp. For the past two years, that platform has allowed customers to use Lightning payments to buy digital gift cards, including those for au PAY, V-Preca, and Kyash.
The company is currently inviting media, potential merchants, and wallet providers to meet with the team at the Bitcoin Asia 2026 conference in Hong Kong.
