- An official from BOJ said the public must be in support of Japan CBDC before it’s launched.
- The bank still maintained that it doesn’t see any strong case to issue a CBDC soon.
The central bank of Japan (BOJ) is among the banks experimenting with the launching of the central bank digital currency (CBDC). Although the central bank still maintains that it doesn’t see any strong use case for launching a Japan CBDC. Today, a BOJ official disclosed that the launching of the digital currency would be subjected to the public support of Japanese residents.
A potential Japan CBDC should have public support from Japanese
The head of the BOJ payment system department, Kazushige Kamiyama, issued the statement on Friday, according to BNN Bloomberg. Kamiyama opined if the Japan CBDC must be launched, it has to be supported by the Japanese. “At the end of the day there’s no way we can proceed without gaining sufficient understanding from the Japanese public,” he added.
Besides the statement, they didn’t fail to highlight that the central bank hasn’t arrived at a conclusion on whether to launch a digital currency. Japan’s development around CBDC is only aimed at deepening the central bank’s understanding of what conditions must be met, and how the potential Japan CBDC will be operated. So, “there is no conclusion yet,” according to the BOJ official.
Japan to trail CBDC next year
Recently, the Japanese central bank disclosed their intention to begin testing a certain bank digital currency by next year. As explained, the move was meant to prepare the bank, in case the need for the national digital currency becomes unavoidable. According to Kamiyama, the central bank needed to keep up with the global trend in CBDC, especially China, which is the leading country pushing towards the launch of its CBDC.
“It’s not desirable if what China is doing becomes impossible to understand for us. […] We must diligently study.”
