Japans central bank to pilot digital currency starting in April

News Summary

  • Japan is joining a growing list of countries exploring the possibility of adopting a digital currency, with the country’s central bank, the Bank of Japan (BoJ), announcing that it would launch a pilot to test a “digital yen” in April.
  • The move comes more than two years after the BoJ made its first step in the space, launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC) proof of concept experiment, in October 2020.
  • Nigeria follows China’s footsteps in piloting digital currencyChina’s digital yuan tests leap forward in Shenzhen
  • The BoJ kicked off the first phase of that PoC in April 2021 to test the basic transactions of CBDC, including issuance, payout and transfer.
  • Apart from China, Hong Kong and Thailand, more than 20 countries, including Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil, Malaysia, South Africa and Ghana, will continue or begin in the pilot stage in 2023.
  • Japan will have a CBDC forum and invite private businesses engaging in retail payments or related technologies to participate in the discussion, Uchida added.
Japan is joining a growing list of countries exploring the possibility of adopting a digital currency, with countrys central bank, the Bank of Japan (BoJ), announcing that it would launch a pilot to [+2672 chars]