MUFG Bank Ltd. (President & CEO: Junichi Hanzawa), a consolidated subsidiary of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (President & Group CEO: Hironori Kamezawa, hereinafter “MUFG”), has decided to acquire a total of 600 million yen in shares of JP UNIVERSE Inc. and LOGSYS Inc., both subsidiaries of TBT Lab Inc. (CEO: Hajime Tabata, hereinafter “TBT Lab”), a business development lab focusing on the Web3 and Metaverse domains, and has agreed to form a capital and business alliance with TBT Lab Group.

Through this partnership, MUFG and TBT Lab Group will further accelerate their efforts to create a joint Metaverse Economic Zone.

Next-generation digital space services, including games and the Metaverse, offer both convenience and experiential value, and are expected to have a significant impact on future economic and industrial growth.

In February 2023, TBT Lab initiated the concept of creating the Japan Metaverse Economic Zone (hereinafter “JMEZ”) utilizing a common infrastructure (Open Metaverse) where the Metaverse and digital contents can converge, and a total of 10 Japanese companies including MUFG have entered into this basic agreement. This will be a strategic capital and business alliance for the purpose of promoting JMEZ and collaborating mainly in the development of financial platform functions such as authentication, settlement, and data necessary for the creation of the Economic Zone.

Through this alliance, MUFG is also considering the expansion of the Metaverse Economic Zone into Asia, as MUFG has positioned Asia as its second home market and has built a commercial banking platform in Southeast Asia. Moving forward, MUFG will utilize its commercial banking platform to help develop a Metaverse Economic Zone in Asia together with TBT Lab Group and other supporting companies, and will also work for the development of Asian economies and industries.

Through this alliance, MUFG and TBT Lab Group will contribute to strengthening Japan’s international competitiveness in the digital space business, which presents tremendous growth potential.