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Japan gears up to issue digital currency in both the public and private sectors.

Japan is looking to limit stablecoin issuance to banks and wire transfer companies and tighten the oversight for the sector.
Japan is looking to limit stablecoin issuance to banks and wire transfer companies and tighten the oversight for the sector.

Japan is reportedly increasing its preparation to issue digital currency in both the public and private sectors following swift moves by China and other countries to do the same. The People’s Bank of China has tested the national digital currency in several cities and is currently planning to roll out the CBDC nationwide. The central bank accelerated its efforts to create the digital yuan this year, rolling out pilot programs that provided 200 digital yuan to each of 150,000 citizens selected by lottery in Shenzhen in October and Suzhou earlier this month.

Japan follows China’s lead in issuing a CBDC.

China has prompted moves toward digital currency around the world,” said Hiromi Yamaoka, a former senior official in charge of payment and settlement systems at the Bank of Japan. “It has done so at surprising speed, as central banks across countries are taking a cautious stance” on new systems, he added. Yamaoka said he expects the People’s Bank of China to officially issue the digital yuan by 2022 when the country hosts the Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Central banks continue to explore CBDCs.

Major central banks like the BOJ, the U.S. Federal Reserve, and the European Central Bank, and the Bank for International Settlements released a joint report in October, saying the group of central banks will collaboratively explore the potential promotion of innovative payments. “A CBDC could be an important instrument for central banks to fulfill their public policy objectives and to evolve in step with the wider digitalization of people’s day-to-day lives,” it added, but no major central banks have yet officially decided to introduce a CBDC. Japan’s central bank will launch a feasibility study on its digital currency in the next fiscal year.

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