BOJ to Test Blockchain for Reserve Settlements, Ueda Says
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda announced on Tuesday that the BOJ will conduct experiments using blockchain technology to settle deposits held at the central bank by financial institutions. The move is explicitly framed as experimental testing rather than an immediate policy shift, with the central bank seeking to evaluate how distributed-ledger approaches perform in core settlement functions.
The initiative matters because it could inform future upgrades to Japan’s payment and settlement infrastructure, potentially improving settlement speed, liquidity management and system resilience. While the BOJ has not committed to issuing a digital currency, these tests signal a willingness to trial emerging ledger technologies in a controlled setting — a development market participants and infrastructure providers will watch closely for implications on interoperability and risk management.