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Tokyo Eyes Bank-Issued Yen Stablecoin as Astar's Watanabe Targets JPYSC Launch HONG KONG — Japan is moving to fold tokenised settlement into the regulated banking perimeter, a shift with material consequences for capital flows across the Asia-Pacific dollar bloc.
Sota Watanabe, founder of the Tokyo-based public chain Astar Network (ASTR), said on X this week that he intends to ship "JPYSC" — what he describes as the first bank-issued yen stablecoin — within the next several months.
JPYSC would not be the work of a private issuer holding commercial paper and Treasury bills, the model that built USDT and USDC into roughly $200 billion of offshore dollar liquidity.
It would instead sit inside the perimeter that the Financial Services Agency drew when Japan's amended Payment Services Act took effect in June 2023, which forces stablecoin issuers to be licensed and to fully back tokens with redeemable fiat.
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