Legal supervision on blockchain technology in the global sphere - part 3

Japan: Supervision focuses on increasing the risk audit of digital asset exchanges

Japan has always been a friendly country to blockchain. The Fund Settlement Act passed on May 25, 2016 recognizes digital assets as a legal means of payment, not commodities or securities, which clarifies the legal status of virtual currencies and their trading platforms. In January 2018, CoinCheck exchange in Japan experienced a NEM stolen incident, which has a lot to do with the security management of the exchange. Therefore, in March, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) strengthened its review of domestic digital asset exchanges. It can be seen that the Japanese government has actively responded to blockchain and strengthened the regulation on it in 2018. Also in 2018, Japan gradually optimized its supervision and regulated the issuance and transactions of digital currencies through the introduction of guidelines and regulations. Although most of the regulations are still in the early stages, the Japanese government has promoted the healthy development of digital transactions through the process of gradual compliance. Relevant Japanese legislation has been continuously improved in terms of the compulsory registration of trading institutions, strengthening the isolation of trading funds and anti-money laundering mechanism. When strict supervision on digital currencies is being carried out, blockchain technology is being widely used at the same time.