Japan’s Financial Services Agency, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan, alongside industry participants, will form a joint study group this summer to explore a blockchain-based payment infrastructure for instant settlement of stock and Japanese government bond transactions.
The initiative aims to reduce settlement times from the current two-day cycle for equities and next-day settlement for JGBs. The working group will outline technical specifications for the blockchain system, allocate responsibilities among agencies and institutions, and draft a development roadmap. A formal development plan is expected no earlier than early 2027, with operations potentially commencing in the early 2030s if approved.
Beyond domestic markets, the project may later extend the instant settlement framework to international remittances, according to the plan’s scope. The effort reflects broader efforts to modernize Japan’s financial market infrastructure amid global interest in distributed-ledger technologies for post-trade processes.
