Momentum continues in Japan with notable passkey success stories and deployments from Nikkei, Tokyu, Google, Sony Interactive Entertainment, KDDI, LY Corporation, Mercari and NTT DOCOMO
TOKYO, December 12, 2024 – More than 15 billion online accounts can use passkeys for faster, safer sign-ins – more than double than this time last year. The momentum behind FIDO and passkeys is the focus of today’s 11th annual FIDO Tokyo Seminar, where hundreds gathered to learn about the latest developments in the global push to eliminate dependence on passwords. Presenters include those from Google, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Mastercard, Waseda University, the Institute of Information Security, KDDI, LY Corporation, Mercari and NTT DOCOMO.
Passkeys become more widely available for consumer and workforce applications – and companies are seeing the benefits
Passkeys provide phishing-resistant security with a simple user experience far superior to passwords and other phishable forms of authentication. Many consumer brands are reporting passkey success stories and business benefits; some notable new and recent announcements include:
- Amazon made passkeys available to 100% of its users, including in Japan, this year and already has 175 million passkeys created for sign-in to amazon.com across geographies.
- Google recently reported that 800 million Google accounts now use passkeys, resulting in more than 2.5 billion passkey sign-ins over the past two years. Also, Google’s sign-in success rates have improved by 30% and sign-ins speeds have increased by 20% on average.
- Sony Interactive Entertainment, the company behind PlayStation, released passkeys as an alternative option to passwords for their global gaming community and observed a 24% reduction in sign-in time on its web applications for passkey users. Additionally, high conversion rates have been observed, with 88% of customers who are presented with the benefits of passkeys successfully completing enrollment.
Adoption also grew in the workforce this year as more companies bolstered their authentication options with passkeys, including Hyatt, IBM, Target and TikTok.
Consumers gained flexibility and choice for passkey management this year, as more credential managers, such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane and LastPass expanded their passkeys support cross-ecosystem, and the FIDO Alliance announced new draft specifications for users to securely move passkeys and all other credentials across providers.
Notable Momentum in Japan
Specifically in Japan, new passkeys deployments and success were announced from Nikkei Inc., Nulab Inc., and Tokyu Corporation:
- Nikkei Inc. unveiled their plan to deploy passkeys for Nikkei ID, for the millions of Nikkei ID customers to begin their migration from passwords to passkeys. This will be launching in February 2025 or later.
- Nulab Inc. announced their dramatic improvement in passkey adoption for Nulab accounts based on the outcome of the Passkey Hackathon Tokyo this past November.
- Tokyu Corporation has reported that 45% of TOKYU ID users have passkeys, and sign-ins with passkeys are 12 times faster than a password plus an emailed OTP.
Additionally, Nikkei Inc., Nulab Inc. and Tokyu Corporation all successfully demonstrated their passkey implementations at the Passkey Hackathon Tokyo, organized by Google and sponsored by FIDO Alliance, in June 2024. Companies receiving awards included Nulab and Tokyu, as well as two teams of students from Japanese universities:
- Keio University team received the grand winner award for adopting passkeys combined with an IoT device – a smart door lock created by a 3D printer.
- Waseda University team received another FIDO award for their unique user authentication protocol and implementation combined with passkeys, verifiable credentials and zero-knowledge proofs.
In addition to these two teams, a group at the Institute of Information Security (Yokohama, Japan) presented their research entitled “A Study on Notification Design to Encourage General Users to Use Passkeys” at a workshop organized by the Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSG) on December 4, 2024. These activities demonstrate how students in academia are embracing passkeys as an attractive option for life without passwords.
Organizations that have already deployed passkeys for more than a year shared new successes:
- KDDI now has more than 13 million au ID customers now using FIDO and has seen a dramatic decrease (nearly 35%) in calls to its customer support center as a result. Managing FIDO adoption carefully for both subscribers and non-subscribers.
- LY Corporation property Yahoo! JAPAN ID now has 27 million active passkeys users. Approximately 50% of user authentication on smartphones is now passkeys. LY Corporation said that passkeys have a higher success rate over SMS OTP and achieve 2.6 times faster.
- Mercari has 7 million users enrolled in passkeys, and enforcing passkey login for synced passkeys enrolled users of Mercari. Notably, there have been zero phishing incidents at Mercoin, a Mercari subsidiary since March 9, 2023.
- NTT DOCOMO has increased its passkey enrollments and now passkeys are used for approximately 50% of authentication by account users. NTT DOCOMO notably reports significant decreases in successful phishing attempts and there have been no unrecognized payments at docomo Online Shop since September 23, 2022.
To drive further adoption in Japan, the FIDO Alliance announced that Passkey Central, the website for consumer service providers to learn more about why and how to implement passkeys for simpler and more secure sign-ins, is now available in Japanese. Passkey Central provides visitors with actionable, data-driven content to discover, implement, and maintain passkeys for maximum benefits over time. The comprehensive resources on Passkey Central include:
- Introduction to passkeys
- Business considerations and metrics
- Internal and external communication materials
- Implementation strategies & detailed roll-out guides
- UX & Design guidelines
- Troubleshooting
- And more implementation resources, such as glossary, Figma kits, and accessibility guidance
Along with the many in Japan, there are 66 of the FIDO Alliance’s 300+ member companies actively taking part in the FIDO Japan Working Group (FJWG). The FJWG is now beginning its 9th year working together to spread awareness and adoption of FIDO in the region.
Consumers and workforce users are aware of, and want to use, passkeys
Passkeys are not only available across a wide array of services, but recent studies have shown that consumers and workforce users are aware of, and want to use, passkeys. Recent FIDO Alliance research shows that in the two years since passkeys were first made available, consumer awareness has risen by 50%, up from 39% in 2022 to now 57% in 2024. Consumers also report that when they adopt at least one passkey, 1 out of 4 enables passkeys whenever possible. A majority of consumers also believe passkeys are more secure (61%) and more convenient than passwords (58%). Since 2023, consumers from APAC reported passkey awareness has grown significantly more when compared to the global average and other countries in 2024. Consumers from China (80%), India (70%), Japan (62%), and Singapore (58%) reported significantly higher passkey adoption in the last year, with Australia (52%) and South Korea (44%) trending close to the overall average (59%).
Sources:
Online Authentication Barometer 2024: Consumer Trends & Attitudes on Authentication Methods.
https://fidoalliance.org/research-findings-consumer-trends-and-attitudes-towards-authentication-methods/
Consumer Password & Passkey Trends: World Password Day 2024.
https://fidoalliance.org/content-ebook-consumer-password-and-passkey-trends-wpd-2024/
About the FIDO Alliance
The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance, www.fidoalliance.org, was formed in July 2012 to address the lack of interoperability among strong authentication technologies, and remedy the problems users face with creating and remembering multiple usernames and passwords. The FIDO Alliance is changing the nature of authentication with standards for simpler, stronger authentication that define an open, scalable, interoperable set of mechanisms that reduce reliance on passwords. FIDO Authentication is stronger, private, and easier to use when authenticating to online services.
