The government of Japan is considering to include a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in its official economic plan.
The news comes after Bank of Japan’s recent announcement that it will start experimenting with Japan’s digital yen to check its feasibility from a technical perspective.
ついに日本もCBDC(中央銀行デジタル通貨)が正式に検討されます！ 日銀さんが及び腰だったのですが、政府主導で骨太の方針に盛り込まれるのは心強い。 あらゆる所で「日本でもCBDCの試験導入を。」と言い続けたので、気持ちが届いたとすると何よりです。https://t.co/srOzVV2ATJ — 加納裕三 (Yuzo Kano) (@YuzoKano) July 15, 2020
On July 14 Nikkei reported that the consideration of CBDC will be included in the Honebuto Plan for Economic and Fiscal Revitalization.
The Honebuto Plan is Japan’s basis for economic and fiscal policy. The report further went on to state that the Japanese government “will consider a CBDC while coordinating with other countries”.
Post China started testing on its CBDC or digital yuan, the Japanese government too accelerated preparing its own CBDC.
Kozo Yamamoto, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Member of the House of Representatives and a former official at the Ministry of Finance has urged Japan in implementing its CBDC faster:
“If Japan doesn’t issue a digital currency and people in the world use other digital currencies, the Japanese yen will be forgotten and lose its sovereignty”.
There have been contradictions in Japan’s plan for its CBDC.
In July 2019 the Bank of Japan stated that “they had no plan to issue CBDC”.
However, in this month the bank announced that it would begin experimenting with a central bank digital currency.
According to Nikkei, in the end, the Japanese government, and not the Bank of Japan, has the power to judge whether or not to issue CBDC.
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: Unsplash