The Financial Services Agency's new forum on on-chain finance has a deadline: an interim summary and a public-private roadmap by early 2027. The forum, chaired by the financial services minister, held its first meeting on 30 September 2026 from 14:00 to 15:00 at a government building in Tokyo, and the FSA has since published the minutes.
Milestones the minutes set out
The minister said the forum should compile an interim summary based on the ministries' studies, together with a roadmap for that point in time. The FSA's secretariat said it also plans to set up two FSA study groups, one on the policy environment for on-chain finance and one on the sound use of AI. The minutes give no start dates for either.
| Workstream | Lead | Timing and stage |
|---|---|---|
| Interim summary and roadmap | On-chain finance forum | Targeted for early 2027 |
| Asia Day 2027 conference | FSA with the Finance Ministry | Planned for February next year |
| Government bond on-chain study group | Finance Ministry | Due to start in October |
| Study groups on environment and sound AI use | FSA | To be set up; no date given |
| AI Digital Reform Promotion Council | Digital Agency | To start soon |
| DLT-linked sandbox | Bank of Japan | Under way |
| Bank officials' study group | Japanese Bankers Association | Already set up |
An FSA official in charge of international affairs said the agency wants to launch a policy dialogue for Asian public and private stakeholders with the Finance Ministry. The first step is a conference called Asia Day 2027, planned for February next year on new finance in the digital era.
Who is studying what
The Finance Ministry's Financing Bureau said a new study group of outside experts on putting government bonds on-chain will start in October. It will sort out the issues, taking account of concrete private-sector projects. The bureau said it will weigh the effect on the government bond market.
The Digital Agency said it will study, from a technical angle, using stablecoins and tokenized deposits for public benefit payments. The aim is payments restricted to a stated purpose such as childcare or groceries. It will also take over work on how stablecoins are treated under existing laws, after the secretariat that held that task was folded into the agency on 1 September. That work is to go to an AI Digital Reform Promotion Council, which the agency said it will start soon.
The Bank of Japan said it is running a DLT-linked sandbox, with private financial institutions, to test technically whether its current-account deposits could support broad blockchain settlement. It also takes part in Project Agora, led by the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance, which aims at 24/7 cross-border settlement with tokenized commercial-bank and central-bank deposits. These are verification exercises.
The Japanese Bankers Association said it has set up a study group of bank officials on future issues, a structure open to a wide range of institutions, and the role of next-generation interbank settlement infrastructure. A separate group will examine banks' non-financial business.
The backdrop and the doubts
The FSA said stablecoin issuance is now about $310bn, of which 83% is dollar-denominated. It cited a BIS survey of 90 jurisdictions in which commercial banks in about one-third have some tokenized-deposit initiative. Its Payment Innovation Project has backed four projects so far, the latest announced on 29 September and covering stablecoins in trade-practice management.
Members pressed on timing and take-up. One member said the schedule is hard to see and should be set out quickly. Another noted that time to the early-2027 target is limited and urged small, fast starts. An academic member said the Bank of Japan's current-account deposits were the most workable permanent architecture, and pointed out that an earlier JPX-led post-trade DLT trial showed no move toward implementation.