BITPoint Japan Co., is planning to give 100,000s of Japanese retail outlets the ability to accept bitcoin through point-of-sale terminals.
Implementation of this can potentially drive a sustained move upwards in the bitcoin price.
From the Bloomberg article:
“We’re holding discussions with a retail-related company,” Genki Oda, BITPoint’s president, said in a recent interview. “By going through a company providing payment terminal services to shops, we have the possibility of increasing its use at one stroke. It’s easier than talking to lots of individual retailers.”
How will this affect the bitcoin price? Stores and customers alike will need a certain amount to bitcoin to prime the system. What would you keep in your daily shopping bitcoin wallet? $100, $200? If there's 100K outlets then there will be some multiple of that as customers. Antoher factor will be popularity, which depends on press treatment and perceived benefit. Hopefully, since BITPoint seems to be a progressive company, ease of use will not be a issue.
A caution from the Japan Times article:
"Still, it’s unclear whether bitcoin payments can become more than a marketing gimmick. The biggest hurdles include long network confirmation times and high transaction fees. While many bitcoin community members rallied around a new proposal last week to fix the problem, deep differences within the group have led to several similar solutions falling through since 2015."
I don't think BITPoint's motivation is to create a marketing gimmick. More likely, they want to be first in the game.
(edit was to add Japan Times link)