Nudge Holds Second Meeting of the Entertainment × Fintech Consortium, Hosting an Interview Workshop with Oshi-katsu Users

Nudge Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Takafumi Okita) announced that it held the second meeting of the Entertainment × Fintech Consortium on April 27, 2026. The meeting brought together 26 companies, including financial institutions, entertainment businesses, and technology companies, and marked the consortium’s first interview workshop with oshi-katsu users. The consortium aims to build a new economic ecosystem that merges the entertainment and financial industries. By engaging across industry boundaries with people who support their favorite idols, characters, creators, or other interests, as well as those who pursue self-improvement or creative activities for their favorites, the consortium seeks to uncover latent needs and accelerate concrete proof-of-concept projects, demonstration experiments, and business co-creation for new services. The Entertainment × Fintech Consortium was launched in January 2026 to promote collaboration between the entertainment industry’s highly engaged customer base and the robust financial infrastructure of Japanese financial institutions. In the rapidly growing oshi-katsu market, companies are expected to go beyond analyzing consumption behavior and deeply understand the emotions and contexts behind fan activity in order to update the customer experience. To achieve this, the consortium plans to hold regular cross-industry workshops to create new services that combine entertainment with financial functions. At the second meeting, the consortium carried out several activities to address these themes. First, 26 companies from different industries, including financial institutions, entertainment businesses, and technology companies, gathered to share cross-industry knowledge. The release also notes that 29 companies representing various industries are participating in the consortium. Second, under the theme “the first step in understanding oshi-katsu users,” the secretariat, jointly formed by Nudge Inc., TIS Inc., and Hakuhodo Inc., designed and conducted a user interview workshop. Participants then split into groups and conducted three interview sessions with actual oshi-katsu users. Through these discussions, each company deepened its understanding of users from its own perspective and gained insights that may connect to future PoC initiatives and demonstration experiments. Takafumi Okita, President and Representative Director of Nudge Inc., said this was the consortium’s first attempt to listen directly to actual oshi-katsu users. He noted that having 26 companies from different industries face the same users and ask questions from their respective perspectives produced real insights that could not be gained from desk research alone. He said he is convinced that deeply understanding the emotions and contexts behind oshi-katsu behavior will lead to the creation of a new economic ecosystem that merges entertainment and finance. The consortium will continue working with participating companies to accelerate PoCs and business co-creation. Looking ahead, the consortium will continue aiming to create concrete collaboration projects through regular meetings and subcommittees, while accelerating social implementation through demonstration experiments. Companies and organizations interested in joining the consortium can inquire through the form. Inquiry form: https://forms.gle/tuoUCq36vWey5UWT9; official website: https://nudge.cards/consortium. About Nudge Inc.: Founded in 2020, Nudge operates under the mission of “creating the future of financial experiences through each individual’s actions.” With its cloud-native credit card service infrastructure, Nudge Platform, the company operates the next-generation credit card Nudge as one of Japan’s few certified comprehensive credit purchase intermediaries. Since its founding, Nudge has practiced “Work from anywhere,” valued an organizational culture that respects individual values, and worked to create future financial experiences. The company was established on February 12, 2020. Its representative is Takafumi Okita, Representative Director. Its address is FINOLAB, 4F Otemachi Building, 1-6-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. Capital is approximately 4.6 billion yen, including capital reserves. Related links include the corporate website: https://nudge.works/, careers: https://nudge.works/talents, and official note: https://note.com/nudgecard.