Members of the Financial Services Agency's study group on digital and decentralised finance raised the possibility that a large issuer of electronic payment instruments, hit by heavy redemption requests, could end up dumping the government bonds that back its coins. They suggested checking whether regulation is sufficient, according to the minutes of the group's first meeting of its Reiwa 8 series, held on 20 October 2026.
The minutes record main opinions from the discussion and do not attribute them to named members. They record no decision and no timetable for rule changes.
Stablecoins and tokenised deposits
The meeting ran from 15:00 to 17:00 in a hybrid format. It opened with a secretariat briefing and hearings from Nomura Holdings and Securitize Japan before the discussion.
On stablecoins, one opinion noted that international interest has fallen while interest in tokenised deposits has risen. The reasons given were price volatility and the anti-money-laundering hurdles of using stablecoins for cross-border remittance. Work on making tokenised deposits interoperable has begun, and the member asked for a balanced debate that weighs these overseas trends.
Another member questioned whether current rules cover the lending of electronic payment instruments. When offered together with issuance, such lending can look like an investment solicitation.
Securities and settlement
On security tokens, members said securities that the law requires to be issued as physical certificates should be allowed to go certificate-free. They also called for tokenisation of liquid assets such as listed shares to be considered.
One opinion described the core change from blockchain as a shift in managing customers and transactions from accounts to signing keys. It argued that upgrading transfers should be a priority, with clear responsibility when problems occur. Another called complementing existing systems to reach 24-hour, 365-day operation and links to other systems "one realistic option".
Shortening securities settlement was described as a separate matter from tokenisation. Members urged care over sudden changes to the securities market and over how risk could spread across financial markets, including measures to mitigate or cut off that spread.
Safety and DeFi
Members asked that service providers disclose the scope and level of audits and verification of their systems. They also wanted designs, or public notices, that make clear who can stop what, and how far, during an incident. Contact with public blockchains, whatever chain a firm uses, was said to create uncertainty for anti-money-laundering controls and for the safe custody and return of assets to rightful holders. Private-law questions such as settlement finality and third-party perfection requirements were also raised.
On decentralised exchanges and DeFi, one view was that Japan should first discuss how to deal with them before deciding how to regulate. Another said the country must work out how it receives the FATF's DeFi report and should act in time so that it does not become a venue for regulatory gaps or arbitrage. Members also asked who would take on the gatekeeper role that traditional financial institutions now play.
The minutes give no list of next steps or a date for the next meeting.