Some 70 Japanese companies, including three of the country’s largest banks, have formed a consortium aiming to launch a digital currency based on the Japanese Yen in fiscal 2022.
The digital currency, provisionally named “DCJPY,” will be supported by bank deposits and a common platform to improve large-scale fund transfers and transactions between companies.
The consortium also includes Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, Mizuho Financial Group Inc and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc, which have been meeting regularly for the past year to find ways to develop a common processing infrastructure to support digital payments.
The three big banks have each launched their own digital payment systems, which have had little success.
The consortium also includes other lenders such as Japan Post Bank Co Ltd, brokers and insurers, as well as non-financial companies such as Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp, Kansai Electric Power Co Inc and East Japan Railway Co. Some of these companies are interested in experimenting with measuring the use of digital currency in various industries from energy to retail.
This concerted effort could potentially have implications for the Bank of Japan’s ongoing CBDC experiment, with policymakers committing to work closely with the private sector when the BOJ finally begins issuing a CBDC.