It seems that in 2023, Japanese investors will be able to trade stablecoins, like USDT or USDC.
The Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan, a government agency and an integrated financial regulator responsible for overseeing banking, securities and exchange, is looking to allow the domestic distribution of foreign stablecoins.
According to the report shared by the local news portal Nikkei, the FSA will make the changes “as early as next year.”
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The FSA is reportedly waiting to revise the ordinances issued by the Cabinet Office and create stablecoin handling guidelines, which will be included in the revised “Payment Service Act.”
The news report noted that the new regulation will allow local crypto exchanges to handle stablecoins “under the condition of asset preservation by deposits and upper limit of remittance.”
On top of that, Nikkei stated that if the Japanese start widely using stablecoins for various payments, it will open doors for “faster and cheaper” international transactions.
It is reported that after FSA lifts the ban, the stablecoin distributors will be required to protect the assets and limit stablecoin trading to 1 million yen ($7510) per transaction. On top of that, FSA will be calling for stricter Anti-Money Laundering controls.
On December 26th, FSA started collecting user, investor and industry feedback regarding its plans to lift the ban.
It can be assumed that lifting the ban will significantly impact the Japanese crypto industry, as none of the 31 FSA-registered local crypto exchanges offers trading using US dollar-pegged stablecoins, like USD Coin (USDC) or Tether (USDT).
It is worth noting that Japan’s parliament banned stablecoin issuance by non-banking institutions in June 2022.
In other Japan-related crypto news, at the end of November, Nikkei revealed that the central bank of Japan is looking to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot in spring 2023.
