Japan's Cabinet Passes Bills to Offiically Recognize Digital Currencies As Real Money
What makes a currency “real?” Is it any given government or just the imagination of the people who chose which currency they want to use? In Japan, the Cabinet has recognized that virtual currencies, including but not limited to Bitcoin are in fact similar to real money and the implications for Japan and the countries around the world it does business with could be huge. The set of bills that the Japanese bill set forth to recognize virtual currencies was meant as a measure to help banks expand their information technology capabilities to both cope with the growth of digital currencies and....
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What is even more interesting regarding these bills is how Bitcoin is now labeled as “asset-like values which can be used in making payments and digital transfers”. This means Bitcoin is well underway to be recognized as an official currency in Japan, although there is still a long road ahead. Bitcoin puts on many different hats, depending on which country it is related to. Some states see Bitcoin as a currency, others as a commodity, and most regions don’t even recognize Bitcoin at all. Things are moving in the direction of recognizing this disruptive technology as a currency with similar....
Japanese banks are set for embracing Bitcoin after proposed new laws. Has Bitcoin finally come of age in the land of the rising sun? On March 4, 2016, The Japan Times reported that the Cabinet in Japan had approved a series of bills which would help the banking sector expand their reach when it comes to Information Technology businesses. This intertwining of banking and IT are called ‘FinTech’ in emerging parlance. Interestingly, the cabinet also takes into stock the rising importance of virtual currencies and the new bills will recognize them as a means of making payments and having the....
The National Diet in Japan (the legislature consisting of the Lower House and the Upper House) is currently deliberating over bills to regulate bitcoin and other virtual currencies and a keenly contested bitcoin industry in Japan is watching closely. Following the debacle of the now-defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox which collapsed in 2014, bitcoin as a currency had a PR problem, particularly in Japan. The government stepped in and sought to establish certain guidelines to regulate the cryptocurrency. Before regulation comes recognition and bitcoin is set to be seen as a currency, similar....
A proposed plan to end sales-tax collection on purchases of virtual currencies in Japan will likely propel the growth of Bitcoin and other digital currencies as alternatives to fiat according to a report by Nikkei. After the news, more exchange traders were reported joining the Bitcoin’s bandwagon. The market research firm, Seed Planning, estimating the Bitcoin's annual trading volume will soar to 2 trln yen this year. This move could slash costs for buyers and will be another incentive that would motivate existing Bitcoin users in the country that has been described as one of the first to....
As a Japanese Cabinet-signed law recognizing virtual currencies like bitcoin as a legal method of payment goes into effect on April 1, bitcoin companies and adopters are short on answers about accounting standards specific to cryptocurrencies. In February 2016, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA), the country’s financial regulator, looked into proposals to consider legislative revisions that would recognize bitcoin and digital currencies as equivalents to conventional currencies. The revision, if approved, would see bitcoin as “fulfilling the functions of [a] currency.” Come March, the....