Three major Japanese economic watchdogs - the Finance Ministry, the Financial Services Agency, and the Bank of Japan - joined hands to promote research on central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Reported by The Japan Times on Saturday, the three state entities have held several meetings to discuss the prospect of digital currencies and the related economic impact with it. They also have decided to advance research and analysis on the technological aspect of such an initiative.
Top officials and lawmakers of the country are also getting directly involved in matters with digital currency.
In the last meeting between the three, Yoshiki Takeuchi, vice-minister of finance for international affairs; Ryozo Himino, FSA vice-minister for international affairs; and Shinichi Uchida, BOJ executive director for international affairs joined, hinting the urgency among the officials to expedite the research process and taking the financial decision of whether to issue a CBDC or not.
"We are advancing research and study from the technical and legal perspectives so that we will be able to move in an appropriate way when there is a growing need," the local news daily quoted Haruhiko Kuroda, Bank of Japan governor.
Regulators can't avoid CBDC
The Bank of Japan is also leading a group of other monetary regulators of countries, including England, eurozone, Canada, Sweden, and Switzerland, to study the feasibility of issuing digital currency. Representatives of the central banks are scheduled to have their first meeting in April.
Earlier this month, a group of Japanese lawmakers led by former economic minister Akira Amari also suggested the government to issue a digital version of yen and proposed the take up the discussion in the upcoming G7 meeting.
While major central banks are still researching on CBDC, the central bank of Sweden is set to launch a digital version of the krona - e-krona.
