In Japan, brothers Motonori and Yoshinori Kan aim to become Bitcoin dealers and operate one of the first Robocoin ATMs in the country. For this purpose, Motonori Kan had a new ATM delivered to Suzuka City.
Motonori Kan plans to have his Robocoin ATM operate out of a recreational vehicle around various locations in Japan. The future of the plan depends on potential partnerships he aims to cultivate, he said. He is meanwhile planning to purchase more ATMs.
Motonori Kan has already obtained a used-goods dealer license, while the device itself has been registrated as a vending machine. Registering a Bitcoin ATM is not an easy process in Japan, he explained. Usually ATM machines are registered with Japan’s Financial Services Agency, but for now, bitcoin isn’t a currency in Japan, and therefore no bank and FSA operates digital currency.
The Kan ATM is not available to the public, yet, and the brothers admit that they have never operated Bitcoin ATM before:
“We have never touched the unit, so we do not know all the details. Our working knowledge is only via literature from Robocoin and YouTube videos. When the unit arrives, we will study it thoroughly, and quickly!” Motonori Kan said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal shortly before the ATM was delivered.
The Kans have been interested in new currencies for a long time. Motonori Kan first heard about it while he was studying Austrian Economics during the global financial crisis. As interest in new digital currency continued to grow, Kan came to a point when he decided to purchase a Robocoin Bitcoin ATM and start a new business.
Robocoin was the first company to represent the Bitcoin ATM in Vancouver in October 2013. Now the Suzuka Bitcoin ATM is the 14th such ATM that the company has shipped, while about a hundred machines in total have so far been sold in the United States and overseas.