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Japan to Launch Pilot Program for Digital Yen in April

Posted on 20. February 2023 in Allgemein

• Japan will launch a pilot program in April to test the use of its version of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) known as the digital yen.
• The aim of the pilot is to test the technical feasibility and utilize private businesses’ technology and operation for designing a CBDC ecosystem.
• The move comes after more than two years of proof-of-concept experiments by the BoJ around the digital yen, even as China’s digital yuan continues to lead the CBDC race globally.

Japan Launches Pilot for Issuing Digital Yen in April

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced on Friday that it will be launching a pilot program in April to test out their version of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), known as the digital yen.

Aim of Pilot Program

The aim of this program is twofold: first, to test out its technical feasibility, and second, to incorporate private business’ technology and operations into designing an effective CBDC ecosystem should this project become socially implemented.

China Leads Global Race for CBDCs

This move from Japan follows more than two years worth of experimentation with the digital yen, while China’s own version, called the digital yuan, has been leading much of global development when it comes to CBDCs. Currently over 105 countries representing over 95% of global GDP are on board with developing their own versions.

Leadership Transition

In addition to this news coming out today, there is also set to be leadership transition at BoJ come April when Kazuo Ueda takes over from Haruhiko Kuroda at his five year term ends.

Conclusion

< p >It remains unclear what impact this news might have on other countries’ developments in terms of their own respective versions on CBDCs. However, what we do know for certain is that Japan’s move towards testing out its own version could potentially mean big things for not only other countries looking into issuing their own versions but also those already well underway with this process.