Blockchain Technology and Japan
While blockchain technology might still be in its incubation stage, Japan is seemingly taking ambitious steps to position itself as world leader and a future hub of blockchain technology. It is ahead of most countries in this promising market as evidenced in how the country has adopted the technology. Jonny Fry, in his video below, explains some of the different ways the Japanese are embracing the blockchain technology.
The Major Player: The Japanese Government
The biggest role player in Japan’s impressive adoption of the technology is the Japanese government. The Japanese government views blockchain technology objectively, introducing a regulatory approach around blockchain and crypto currencies. Understanding blockchain as the revolutionary technology, Japan was among the first countries to regulate exchanges of crypto as well as introduce crypto currency as a payment method. Japan currently enjoys a thriving blockchain industry due to the progressive regulations introduced by the government. The technology has also attracted great support from key industry players that contribute to the development of blockchain industries and Japanese crypto currency.
SBI Holdings, a major financial services company in Japan, announced its launch of the first security token offering (STO) through allocation of shares on its new e-sports games arm. SBI Holdings are to conduct the STOs, using ibet, an open source platform developed by the digital security offering platform Boostry. The company considers STOs to be a core fintech technology and intends to tokenize more assets in the future.
Adopting Blockchain to Health Care Sector
Japan also has plans to introduce the blockchain technology to its centralized health care sector. According to medical research blockchain technology has the potential to address some of the challenges that the country’s aging population has impacted on universal health coverage (UHC). It remains unknown how blockchain technology will address issues such as shortage of medical personnel and differences in access to medical care in different locations.
Just recently, NEC – the Japanese technology and electronics heavyweight, acquired Avaloq for $2.2 billion. Avaloq is a Swiss FinTech firm with great blockchain experience that specializes in wealth management, banking and digital payments. NEC has also partnered with other 8 insurance firms in efforts to determine how the technology can help improve processes. A blockchain powered platform is under development to enhance efficiency of post-trade operations in the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Essentially, Japan is not only the third biggest economy worldwide but also an upcoming leader in digital finance. Japan is heading in the right direction in its adoption of the blockchain technology.