Japanese Financial Services Agency Appoints New Commissioner

The Japanese financial services agency has just appointed a new commissioner as per the reports that we have in our latest crypto regulation news.

Ryozo Himino will take over the Japanese Financial Services Agency as the new leader of the agency. In the latest update of the Financial Services Agency’s executive director, Himino is now listed as the new commissioner of the financial watchdog. The regulator was formerly the Deputy Counselor of the International Financial Agency and the First Japanese Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Financial Stability board. Himino will be replacing the outgoing commissioner Toshihide Endo who was described by Anthony Pompliano as the “big proponent of Bitcoin and the Lightning Network.”

However, the new commissioner could be extremely bullish for crypto because, in his role as the international financial deputy counselor, Himino was a key member in helping to bring Blockstream’s Adam Beck to a G20 seminar meeting in Fukuoka in June 2019. In addition, he has compared Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency to an alarm clock because it makes “regulators and central bankers open their eyes.”

As per the recent reports, the Bank of Japan announced to be forming a new team to explore possible research on a central bank digital currency. The BoJ was already working with other central banks from the UK and Canada as well as Switzerland, Sweden, and the EU to consider the feasibility of the digital currencies. The appointment of the crypto-friendly regulator such as Himino could speed up the timeline to release a digital yen in the country.

The coronavirus inspires Japan to finally start “digital yen” trials as the East Asian superpowers are trying to fight the pandemic while focusing on blockchain and digital currencies at the same time. As ZDNet reported, Japan has silently started making digital yen experiments in an effort to build out CBDC capabilities. The move comes right when China’s digital yuan saw explosive development and South Korea assembled a team to create a digital won. The reports showed technical challenges for the state-wide deployment which are being carefully considered while the legal implications are the basis of research showing that Japan wants to have more knowledge before issuing a digital currency.