Japan shelves its plan to launch CBDC

The Bank of Japan has shelved the plan to launch CBDC because of a lack of public interest.

The Central Bank of Japan is holding the issuance of its “Central Bank Digital Currency” or CBDC. It is despite the feasibility test done starting April 2021 until March 2022 and the second phase of experimentation.

Based on Asia Time’s Sayuri Shirai’s report, this is due to the current satisfactory sentiment of most Japanese with e-money payment tools, internet banking services, and credit cards as a transaction medium.

Most westernized countries, which adapted most of their capitalized systems, have been enjoying the instant mode transactions. As a result, most of them are fast, if not instantaneous.

If the market has no issues that digital currency can focus on solving, this will indicate that either digital currency is way too early or that the current instruments and medium are still effective.

Japan is one of those countries with a very efficient system that has enabled most citizens to get smooth access to its banking system, from accounts to transactions to complicated deals; all are easily accessible and convenient through the usual PC or laptop.

Also, among the many things the Japanese people enjoy are the incentives most banks provide for using their transaction platforms.

These could be in the form of points used to pay for specific goods and services when accumulated.

At the same time, Digital currency needs to provide a broader and deeper range of relevance to a world that isn’t encountering a problem in that space.

The third phase is supposed to include private enterprises and existing end-user accounts to participate in the system or pilot program. But unfortunately, the whole thing has been put on hold.

Director Shinichi Uchida, Executive Director at the Bank of Japan (BoJ) denied the possibility of introducing Digital Currency into the system to realize negative interest rates.