The Bank of Japan released “The Bank of Japan’s Approach to Central Bank Digital Currency” on Oct. 9. It is cautious: “While the Bank of Japan currently has no plan to issue CBDC, from the viewpoint of ensuring the stability and efficiency of the overall payment and settlement systems, the Bank considers it important to prepare thoroughly to respond to changes in circumstances in an appropriate manner.... It would be desirable for the CBDC to be used not only for domestic but cross-border payments.” So it will begin “experiments” in using a CBDC from April 2021 onward.
https://www.boj.or.jp/en/announcements/release_2020/data/rel201009e1.pdf
However, Reuters reported Oct.9, “The move came in tandem with an announcement by a group of seven major central banks, including the BOJ, on what they see as core features of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).” A new “innovation” division of the BIS has been formed to coordinate digital currency with seven major central banks; it is headed by the austerity-minded former French member of the ECB Executive Committee Benoit Coeuré, recently for savage austerity against Greeks. This operation published a report, also on Oct. 9, with guidelines for developing CBDC, in coordination with the Bank of England, Federal Reserve, Bank of Canada, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, Swiss Central Bank, Swedish Central Bank and the Bank for International Settlements. https://www.bis.org/publ/othp33.pdf
