Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. may start accepting Bitcoin after CEO Hiroshi Mikitani confirmed the company was considering the move.

“We are thinking about it, and we probably will,” Mikitani told the audience at the Rakuten Financial Conference, “We would like to be open [to Bitcoin].”

According to Wall Street Journal Mikitani declined to specify when the company might decide to accept Bitcoin, saying it was a trade secret.

Although Rakuten is not a household name in the United States, a number of its owned companies are well known, including Buy.com and ebook maker Kobo. Other owned companies include the popular affiliate site Linkshare, Play.com and Freecause. Its main online shopping service Rakuten Ichiba is an Amazon competitor and is the largest e-commerce site in Japan, and the company also own a bank, distributes credit cards, and operates its own securities brokerage.

If and when Rakuten started accepting Bitcoin it would be one of the largest e-commerce sites in the Bitcoin ecosystem, with the company doing $5.3 billion in revenue in 2013.

The move comes amid growing support for Bitcoin in Japan, with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party supporting the launch of the industry’s self-governing body, the Japan Authority of Digital Assets in 2014. Despite the infamous collapse of the Japan based Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, Japan has been named an “oasis for Bitcoin startups.”

Rakuten accepting payment in Bitcoin would add to the momentum towards Bitcoin entering the mainstream, not just in Japan but globally. Companies that already accept Bitcoin payments include Microsoft, Google, Dell Inc., Overstock.com, Expedia Inc., Reddit and other.

photo credit: #RakutenBolsa via photopin (license)