The Japanese government is expected to include consideration of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in its official economic plan. The news comes 10 days after the Bank of Japan’s announcement that it will start experimenting with the digital yen to verify its viability from a technical perspective.
According to Nikkei, CBDC consideration will be included in the Honebuto Plan for Economic and Fiscal Revitalization. The Honebuto Plan is the foundation of Japan’s economic and fiscal policy, and the report says the Japanese government “will consider a CBDC while coordinating with other countries.”
Japan and CBDC
After China began testing its CBDC or digital yuan, the Japanese government has accelerated preparations for its own CBDC. In March, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph Japan, Kozo Yamamoto, a member of the House of Representatives of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) and a former official of the Ministry of Finance, urged Japan to quickly implement CBDC:
“If Japan does not issue a digital currency and people in the world use other digital currencies, the Japanese yen will be forgotten and lose its sovereignty.”
The change in attitudes has been rapid. In July 2019, the Bank of Japan maintained that “they had no plans to issue CBDC.” However, in a report this month, it announced that it would start experimenting with a central bank digital currency.
According to Nikkei, the Japanese government, and not the Bank of Japan, has the final right to judge whether or not to issue CBDC.
In February, the central banks of Great Britain, the eurozone, Japan, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland announced a plan to collaborate in investigating the issuance of digital currencies.
