Japan's FSA Sets Up an Onchain Finance Forum: Stablecoins, Tokenized Deposits and JGB Tokenization Go Into a Cross-Ministry Review

On September 25, 2026, Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA, 金融庁) announced that it is setting up the 「AI時代を見据えたオンチェーン金融フォーラム」 (an Onchain Finance Forum With an Eye on the AI Era). The FSA says that as AI and blockchain technologies advance, the mechanics of financial transactions are changing, and that it is important to advance the social implementation of blockchain-based onchain finance and to promote the sound use of AI by financial institutions and others. On that basis, the FSA, under the name 「AI時代を見据えたオンチェーン金融イニシアティブ」 (the Onchain Finance Initiative With an Eye on the AI Era), is setting up this cross-cutting review forum together with relevant ministries and agencies. The announcement page does not list which ministries and agencies the relevant ministries and agencies actually are.

Outside the forum, two separate study groups are reviewing their own items. This announcement is not a change of law, not approval of any product, and neither a Bank of Japan decision nor a new rule on crypto-asset trading. The first meeting is scheduled for September 30, 2026 (Wednesday), Japan time 14:00 to 15:00, and is not open to general observers. The material for this piece was verified on September 26, 2026; we have tested no service ourselves, and this offers no investment or legal advice.

What Was Announced on September 25

The same day, the FSA separately published notice of the forum's first meeting, titled 〈「AI時代を見据えたオンチェーン金融フォーラム」（第１回）の開催について〉 (On the Holding of the First Meeting of the Onchain Finance Forum With an Eye on the AI Era). The notice states that the first meeting is scheduled for September 30, 2026 (Wednesday), Japan time 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. (14:00–15:00), which converts to Taipei time 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. (13:00–14:00) — a conversion by the editors; the venue is the Central Government Building No. 7 in Tokyo.

The agenda is marked 「予定」 (scheduled) and runs, in order, opening, 「関係省庁等報告」 (report from relevant ministries and agencies), discussion, and closing; the notice lists no resolution items and does not say that any part will be livestreamed. The notice states that general observers are not admitted, and that what the FSA publishes on its website afterward is a 「議事概要」 (summary of proceedings), not a verbatim record. As of the date this piece was verified (September 26, 2026), the meeting had not yet taken place, and there was no summary yet to cite.

The FSA's announcement page also attaches two PDFs: 別紙１ (Attachment 1) is a diagram of the structure of the forum and the two study groups, and 別紙２ (Attachment 2) is an excerpt from a July 21, 2026 financial strategy (see section three below). The office in charge is the 「暗号資産・ステーブルコイン課」 (Crypto-Assets and Stablecoin Division) under the Asset Management and Insurance Bureau — also the one place on the page where the term 暗号資産 (crypto-assets) appears; the page does not state when this division was established.

What the Forum and the Two Study Groups Each Look At

別紙１ diagrams the overall structure; the forum box's subheading is 「オンチェーン金融の社会実装・AI等の健全な利活用の推進」 (advancing the social implementation of onchain finance and the sound use of AI, etc.). The items listed in the box include a roadmap made through public-private cooperation, continuing and expanding the existing 「決済高度化プロジェクト（PIP）」 (Payments Innovation Project), promoting the construction of new payment systems, cooperation and outreach toward implementing onchain finance internationally, and an onchain response for 日銀当座預金 (funds financial institutions hold on current account at the Bank of Japan); also listed are using stablecoins (SC) and tokenized deposits for public payments, sorting out how stablecoins are treated across laws and regulations, and a tokenization response for JGBs and the like. Both the onchain response for BOJ current-account deposits and JGB tokenization are work items under the forum — they are not an item of either study group, nor a decision the Bank of Japan or the Ministry of Finance has already made on its own.

Besides the forum itself, two study groups review two further matters: environment development, and adaptation to AI and other technologies. The environment-development study group's full name is 「デジタル・分散型金融への対応のあり方等に関する研究会」 (Study Group on the Approach to Responding to Digital and Decentralized Finance, Etc.); its box states 「点検・検討」 (review and examine) the approach to systems for tokenization of various assets, stablecoins, and DEXs, DeFi and wallet-providing operators (ウォレット提供業者), among other things. The AI study group's full name is 「AI等の健全な利活用の推進に関する研究会」 (Study Group on Promoting the Sound Use of AI, Etc.); its box has three items: the sound use of AI, etc. by financial institutions, the appropriate approach to market and financial-institution oversight as AI spreads, and grasping the risk of compromise posed by quantum computers. 別紙１ does not say whether these two study groups are newly formed or already existing, who their members are, or when they will meet.

In other words, the same document splits the work into three tracks: items the forum handles itself, items the environment-development study group handles, and items the AI study group handles. The table below sets out what each of the three tracks lists, and the verb the document uses to describe those items.

What the July 21 Financial Strategy Says

別紙２ excerpts the 《成長投資を促進するための金融戦略》 (Financial Strategy for Promoting Growth Investment) of July 21, 2026; the excerpt itself does not say which body drew it up. The strategy takes the view that in an era of 「エージェンティックコマース」 (agentic commerce), in which AI agents carry out economic activity autonomously, commercial transactions will no longer be bound by language or time-zone differences, and payments are expected to keep pace; if Japan's payment infrastructure cannot keep pace, it may (the original says 「おそれ」, meaning a risk or possibility) deepen dependence on overseas payment infrastructure, weaken Japan's competitiveness and raise economic-security risk. These are all the strategy's own views, not things that have already happened.

The plan the July strategy wrote at the time was to set up this forum in summer 2026 and to carry out review that includes (the original says 「含め」, i.e., not the full scope) three perspectives: advancing the social implementation of onchain finance, environment development, and adaptation to AI and other technologies. The timetable the strategy wrote was to first compile a 「中間整理」 (interim summary) in early 2027 — a schedule, not a final conclusion; neither of the two pages published on September 25 restates this timetable. The strategy also says the necessary expansion of the FSA's organization will be reviewed, again using the word 「検討する」 (review).

The strategy also lists five bodies whose progress will be followed up: the Bank of Japan, which will compile, 「年内」 (within the year), the state of its review of the implementation issues and the path to realizing an onchain response for BOJ current-account deposits; industry associations (unnamed), which will review what banking business should look like in an era in which tokenized deposits and the like are linked to logistics and commercial-flow data; the Digital Agency, which will review the possibility of using stablecoins or tokenized deposits for public payments; the Cabinet Secretariat's digital administrative and fiscal reform council secretariat, which will conduct a cross-ministry review of treating stablecoins as equivalent to money, among other things, to sort out and clarify their treatment in law; and the Ministry of Finance, which will review a tokenization response for JGBs and the like and making it possible for principal and interest payments to be made onchain according to investor needs. These five are subjects whose progress is being followed up; the strategy does not list them as members of the forum.

Three Points Easiest to Misread

First, the onchain response for BOJ current-account deposits is only one work item inside the forum's box; the July strategy states that the Bank of Japan will compile the state of its review 「年内」 (within the year), and this is not an announcement from the Bank of Japan itself. None of the four documents contains the word CBDC, so this cannot be written up as the Bank of Japan having decided to put reserves onchain, or as having already launched a digital yen.

Second, DEXs, DeFi and wallet-providing operators are listed under the environment-development study group; the July strategy states that the appropriate approach to risk-reduction measures (including regulation matched to the technology's nature, neither too much nor too little) will be reviewed while watching developments in other countries — this is still at the review stage, not an opening already decided, and it cannot be characterized as only easing or only tightening.

Third, the term 暗号資産 (crypto-assets) appears in the four documents only in the name of the office in charge, the 「暗号資産・ステーブルコイン課」 (Crypto-Assets and Stablecoin Division); the body text does not mention the trading, listing or operator rules for crypto-assets, and no coin, token or operator name appears anywhere. This announcement is not a new rule on the regulation of crypto-asset trading.

What This Means for Readers in Taiwan, and How to Follow Up

None of the FSA's four documents mentions Taiwan; the international section states only that the FSA will hold dialogue with regulators in other countries and create a public-private policy dialogue framework with Asia, without naming any particular country or region in Asia. This announcement brings no change to any service Taiwanese users can use today; readers can treat this kind of cross-ministry division of work as a reference point to watch.

To follow this yourself, you can go from the 「開催実績」 link on the meeting-notice page to the forum's own page and wait for the summary of proceedings to be published after the meeting; you can also watch for the interim summary the July strategy places in early 2027, which is likewise a scheduled timetable that has not yet arrived. This piece covers only what the FSA published on September 25, 2026; any later announcement needs to be verified separately.

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