Japan's Zentoshin collapsed owing ¥115B after suspected 20 years of faked accounts

The Japan Times, citing Bloomberg, reported on July 10, 2026 that Osaka-based payments firm Zentoshin had abruptly collapsed into bankruptcy that week, leaving 63 creditors with claims totalling ¥115.16 billion ($709 million), according to Tokyo Shoko Research. Creditors are mostly regional banks and local lenders. The biggest, Kinkisangyou Shinkumi Bank, is owed about ¥22 billion, followed by Tokyo Star Bank and Towa Bank at about ¥8 billion each.

Tokyo Shoko said Zentoshin is suspected of falsifying its financial statements for at least two decades and may have been effectively insolvent by about ¥60.5 billion. The bankruptcy was triggered by difficulty securing additional financing after allegations of employee misconduct two years earlier hit its reputation. Bankers Co., a loan-based crowdfunding operator, is owed about ¥2.1 billion through funds that lent to Zentoshin, and its individual investors could face losses.

Zentoshin served about 200,000 shops with credit card services, many of them small restaurants and retailers that depend on early payments. Financial Services Agency officials do not expect concerns about the soundness of the lenders but will examine whether they exercised proper due diligence and risk management.

Tokyo Shoko suspects the firm falsified its financial statements for at least two decades, so lenders were dealing with misstated accounts.

Allegations of employee misconduct two years earlier damaged its reputation and made new financing hard to get.

Reported claims may differ from final confirmed claims because of collateral enforcement and other adjustments.

Lenders that took a payments firm's statements at face value for two decades discovered the gap only when new money stopped. A reputation hit can expose long-hidden accounts.

Zentoshin said it would report on its assets through its website to the extent possible and had no plans for a creditors' meeting. The FSA said it would review the lenders' due diligence. The falsification is suspected, per Tokyo Shoko, and was not established in the article.