Rakuten Wallet, the cryptocurrency trading service of Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten, has started a campaign that pays Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE) to users who upload photos of their pet dogs. Assessments say the move goes beyond a simple marketing event, signalling that Japan’s retail industry is moving to use memecoins for customer acquisition and loyalty programmes in earnest.

Blockchain media outlet U.Today reported on June 18 that Rakuten Wallet is holding a "Photo Contest 2026" and will pay SHIB and DOGE to users who post pet dog photos on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

The campaign’s potential participant pool totals about 44 million, and there will be 11 winners. Rakuten Wallet will pay 11,111,111 SHIB each to 10 people, worth about 10,000 yen at current value. One grand prize winner will receive 1,111 DOGE worth about 18,000 yen.

The market is viewing the event not as a simple giveaway but as a signal of change in Japan’s cryptocurrency market. Among Japanese retail investors, memecoins such as SHIB and DOGE are being seen as digital collectibles that can be bought easily in small amounts. Companies are using them to link cryptocurrencies to shopping, points and payment services, encouraging user participation.

Rakuten in particular is expanding the ways it uses SHIB by linking it to its payment service, the Rakuten Pay network. As a result, SHIB is moving beyond a purely speculative asset and taking root as a payment method that can be used for actual spending. Industry assessments say SHIB is securing a foundation to be used across a retail merchant network of about 5 million outlets through the Rakuten ecosystem.

The move also coincides with regulatory easing in Japan. The Japan Virtual and Crypto Assets Exchange Association (JVCEA) designated SHIB as a "green list" asset that meets its rules in November last year. That has created an environment in which large companies can use SHIB in services and promotions without the burden of separate listing reviews.

Rival Mercari is also moving to target the memecoin market. Early this month, Mercari added SHIB trading through its subsidiary Mercoin. Platform users, who total 23 million monthly, can now buy SHIB directly using points or proceeds from second-hand sales. The minimum trade amount is 1 yen.

The micro-transaction model is lowering the barriers to entry for ordinary users with no experience investing in cryptocurrencies. Mercoin said that of about 14 million crypto accounts in Japan, 4 million are Mercari user accounts, and 85 percent of them entered the crypto market for the first time through Mercoin. This shows that retail platforms, rather than traditional cryptocurrency exchanges, are becoming a gateway for new investor inflows.

Industry participants say that as SHIB is incorporated into both the Rakuten and Mercari ecosystems, the competitive landscape of Japan’s cryptocurrency market is also changing. As crypto use expands from exchange-centred activity to shopping, payments and points services, analysis says memecoins are starting to play a role not only as "investment products" but also as a "digital loyalty currency".

It is emerging as a new point of focus in Japan’s cryptocurrency market whether memecoins such as SHIB and DOGE will remain simply price-fluctuating assets or take hold within retail platforms as tools that drive real spending and payments.