Per CNBC

Japan is opening itself to launching a "digital yen" pilot program in April. The decision comes after the Bank of Japan has been testing out experiments for two years on whether or not a central bank digital currency (CBDC) should be launched.

Japan is one of the latest countries to join the efforts to catch up to China. So far, China has launched $1.64 million worth of e-CNY for testing from Aug 15 to Sep 23, per Reuters.

As Haruhiko Kuroda is succeeding Kazuo Ueda in leadership, the latter's second five-year term will end in April. Shinichi Uchida, the executive director of the BOJ, shared the bank's hope for the pilot program.

Uchida: “Our hope is that the pilot program will lead to improved designs through discussion with private businesses,”

The BOJ will try out simulated transactions under the pilot program. These simulations will be held with private financial institutions to learn more about the environment.

Uchida also shared how the BOJ will not try out transactions among consumers and retailers during the testing phase. The executive director shared the importance of the program to launch the CBDC in the future.

Uchida: “If a CBDC were to be issued in the future, exploring its framework in such a phased manner and engaging in highly transparent communication with the private sector are necessary steps to take for adoption in society,”

In October, the Bank of Japan announced that it had an emergency bond-buying operation. This meant boosting its plans to buy bonds in the 5 to 10-year tenor to boost it from 575 to 650 billion.

Nearing the end of 2022, Kraken, a US-based crypto firm, announced that it would be stopping its operations in Japan. Finally, it stopped operations on Jan 31 by registering.

This came as the crypto firm decided to cut its workforce by 30%, reducing its headcount by 1,100.

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Reuters