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Global, industry-wide commitment is bringing the passwordless future closer to reality, FIDO Alliance members shared at the first in-person FIDO seminar in Japan since December 2019. During the seminar, leading organisations shared major updates that will further the Alliance’s mission to replace passwords with simpler and stronger authentication.

A significant milestone came last May when Apple, Google and Microsoft announced plans to expand support for FIDO with passkeys, a phishing-resistant replacement for passwords that provide faster, easier and more secure sign-ins to websites and apps across a user’s devices. Passkeys can be leveraged across devices and platforms to offer an end-to-end passwordless sign-in option, or bound to a particular device such as a FIDO security key for high-assurance use cases. Passkeys are supported today in iOS 16, macOS Ventura, Android and ChromeOS, with Windows coming soon.

Notably, global service providers such as PayPal have expanded their FIDO support and are offering passkey sign-ins, while early FIDO adopters in Japan have announced passkey commitments or adoption as their next steps towards passwordless:

• Yahoo! JAPAN has been working on passwordless initiatives with FIDO since 2015, and more than 38 million active users in 2022 are signing in without passwords. Yahoo! JAPAN now supports passkeys iOS, iPadOS and MacOS.
• KDDI first launched FIDO in 2020 for its au ID platform with more than 30 million customers. Now au ID is accessible with passkeys on iOS and FIDO2 on Android.
• NTT DOCOMO has been a leader both within and outside FIDO Alliance beginning with its Board appointment in 2015 and is the first mobile operator to deploy FIDO authentication at scale. DOCOMO has announced its intention to support passkeys for its more than 50 million d ACCOUNT users beginning in early 2023.

“From the very beginning of the FIDO Alliance, Japan has been a global hub of innovation, support and deployments of FIDO authentication. It is not a surprise that several leading organisations in the region will be some of the first globally to offer their customers FIDO sign-ins with passkeys,” said Andrew Shikiar, Executive Director and CMO at the FIDO Alliance. “This is illustrative of our global membership’s commitment to the passwordless future, and their collaboration to maximise the reach, usability and security of FIDO authentication.”

Within the FIDO Alliance’s 250+ members, 58 actively take part in the FIDO Japan Working Group, now beginning its 7th year working together to spread awareness and adoption of FIDO in the region.

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