Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida Comes Out in Support

The current Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, has expressed his support for blockchain technology as a possible answer to the technical challenges that Japan is now experiencing.

Kishida said that there were “different possibilities for adopting Web3” in Japan in answer to a line of inquiry that was posed by a member of the Liberal Democratic Party named Masaaki Taira on February 1 in front of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives in Japan. He went on to say that the Japanese government could use aspects such as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) in their efforts to revitalise regions and promote ‘Cool Japan,’ which is a national strategy aimed at showing off the country’s innovations and culture to the rest of the world.

According to Kishida, “a new community may be formed by individuals who have an interest in the same social concerns if you take DAOs into consideration.” “Creators may also utilise NFTs to diversify their revenue, which can help them keep very committed followers,”

Taira serves as the government’s task force chairperson for the Web3 policy task force. He pointed to coordination with tax authorities in Japan as well as research into the release of a digital yen. The central bank of the country announced in November that it planned to start a pilot programme for a digital currency beginning in the spring of 2023. He pointed to these two things as evidence.

Taira was quoted as saying, “I believe that the different forms of blockchain technology and technology that uses Web3 are useful in fixing the numerous challenges that we face.”

Since he took office in October 2021, Kishida has made sporadic remarks on the Japanese government’s plans to invest in Web3 services as a component of the digital transformation that is going place in the country. His cabinet approved, in the month of September, the distribution of NFTs as a prize for regional authorities that had used digital technology to find solutions to difficulties.

The deputy director-general of the Strategy Development and Management Bureau of Japan’s Financial Services Agency has advocated for more strict regulations on cryptocurrencies, similar to those that are in place for banks. Amidst the recent downturn in the cryptocurrency market, a number of exchanges, including Coinbase and Kraken, have ceased operations in Japan. Additionally, the Japanese affiliate of the insolvent company FTX has until March 9 to cease operations.