Japan’s financial regulators and central bank plan to develop a blockchain-based payment system to enable near-instant settlement of transactions in domestic shares and Japanese government bonds (JGBs).
A study group, formed this summer by the Financial Services Agency, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan, will draft specifications for the infrastructure, assign responsibilities among agencies and financial institutions, and outline a multi-year roadmap. The initiative aims to reduce settlement times from the current T+2 for equities and T+1 for JGBs, aligning Japan with faster post-trade practices seen in other major markets.
The working group will also evaluate whether the system could be extended to cross-border remittances, according to people familiar with the plan cited by Nikkei. A formal development blueprint is expected by early 2027, with operations not anticipated before the early 2030s pending regulatory approval and industry readiness.
The initiative reflects broader efforts across Asia to modernize capital market infrastructure using distributed ledger technology, following similar explorations by authorities in Singapore and Hong Kong.
