Japan is targeting an early 2030s rollout for a blockchain-powered settlement system for stocks and bonds.
Japanese regulators are accelerating efforts to upgrade the country’s settlement infrastructure to stop institutional investors and foreign capital from moving to overseas markets.
— Japanese regulators, the Bank of Japan, and financial institutions intend to build a national blockchain-based settlement system for equities and government bonds, with development slated to start by early 2027 and potential operations beginning in the early 2030s.
— The platform would employ tokenized central bank reserves as a wholesale digital currency, cutting settlement times for stock and government bond trades to near zero.
— The project leverages blockchain trials by Japan’s biggest banks and could enable tokenized cross-border payments as the U.S. and Europe modernize their capital markets.
Japan’s financial regulators, the Bank of Japan (BOJ), and major financial institutions are planning to develop a national blockchain-based settlement infrastructure for stocks and Japanese government bonds (JGBs), according to a Nikkei report on Wednesday.
The Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA), the Ministry of Finance, and the Bank of Japan plan to form a working group this summer, aiming to commence work by early 2027.
If formally approved and testing proceeds as scheduled, the new on-chain system could go live in the early 2030s, the report states.
The plan involves banks converting a portion of their BOJ reserve accounts into digital tokens. These would serve as a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC)—a digital representation of the local currency used exclusively between financial institutions, not individuals.
All Japanese banks use these accounts for interbank payment settlement. Currently, stock trades in Tokyo settle two business days after execution, while JGB trades settle the next day. The new infrastructure would reduce both to near-zero, allowing investors to reinvest proceeds almost immediately.
Nearly 80% of Japanese institutional investors plan to allocate to crypto within three years, according to an April survey by Nomura and Laser Digital. Japan risks losing these investors to other jurisdictions, Nikkei noted, as the U.S. and Europe race to modernize capital markets through tokenization, while Wall Street pushes toward 24/7 tokenized stocks.
The bond tokenization plan builds on existing momentum. Earlier this month, MUFG announced it is preparing a proof of concept for on-chain JGB settlement using the Canton Network. Japan’s top three banks—MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho—are already piloting tokenized stocks and JGBs.
The BOJ expanded its blockchain settlement sandbox—a secure, isolated digital testing environment—in March to continue its CBDC and blockchain efforts, including making them interoperable with legacy interbank and securities settlement infrastructure.
The BOJ is also participating in Project Agorá, a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) initiative that brings together seven central banks and over 40 financial institutions to test tokenized cross-border payments. Japan’s new blockchain settlement infrastructure could serve as a foundation for that effort.
Anvil functions as a shared on-chain collateral layer based on a programmable letter of credit: reserve assets act as a guarantee—no loan, no interest, while maintaining custody and yield.
Why it matters: Anvil serves as a shared on-chain collateral layer built on a programmable letter of credit, where reserve assets provide a guarantee without loans or interest, allowing users to retain custody and yield.
