Japan stablecoin regulation evidence | CBSR historical snapshot
Explore 14 Japan stablecoin regulatory records with source locators, issuer pathways, reserve and yield rules, legal-force and review status in the 20 August 2026 CBSR snapshot.
Read this jurisdiction in context
Japan's evidence separates the closed set of Electronic Payment Instrument issuer types from the registered EPIESP distribution channel. A foreign token's inbound route and its local-reserve and non-solicitation conditions are not automatic mutual recognition. Trust-type backing amendments and intermediary-level yield questions retain their own unresolved detail.
Snapshot record wording · not a statutory quotation
A closed trichotomy: only (a) banks (deposit-type), (b) registered funds-transfer service providers, and (c) trust companies or trust banks (trust-type) may issue Electronic Payment Instruments. Distribution and intermediation require registration as an Electronic Payment Instruments Exchange Service Provider (EPIESP). The issuer trichotomy is the binding eligibility constraint and the structural hallmark of the regime.
Snapshot record wording · not a statutory quotation
Full backing is the baseline; funds-transfer and bank types hold liquid backing. For the trust-type, Act No. 66 of 2025 permits up to fifty percent of issuance value to be held in low-risk short-term assets (Japanese or US government bonds with no more than three months remaining maturity, or terminable time deposits). The bond-eligibility detail was the subject of an FSA consultation that ran until 27 February 2026; final standards were pending at that date.
Instrument / locator
Payment Services Act; Act No. 66 of 2025 (trust-type backing relaxation) Reserve/backing — full backing baseline; trust-type up to 50% short-term low-risk assets (Act 66/2025)
Snapshot record wording · not a statutory quotation
Holders are not remunerated: Electronic Payment Instruments are payment instruments, and issuer economics come from reserve interest. Whether an intermediary-layer (EPIESP) lending service over an admitted foreign token is issuer-paid yield or a separate intermediary product is an open C3xC5 boundary question at the intermediary level, not a feature of the issuer-layer rule.
Snapshot record wording · not a statutory quotation
There is no aggregate cap. Japan does not prohibit foreign-currency tokens; it admits them through a registered Electronic Payment Instruments Exchange Service Provider (EPIESP) that holds reserves in Japan equal to customers' holdings, provided the foreign issuer does not itself issue, redeem, or solicit to Japanese users. This is an open-but-channelled monetary-sovereignty posture: the currency-of-denomination is not capped, but inbound foreign tokens are routed through a registered domestic intermediary holding local reserves.
Distribution — foreign tokens handled via a registered EPIESP holding JP reserves equal to customer holdings; foreign issuer may not issue/redeem/solicit to JP users