Japan’s three largest banking groups are reportedly planning to jointly launch a stablecoin as institutional interest in blockchain-based digital money grows.
According to a Friday report from Nikkei, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group will create a common framework for issuing and transferring stablecoins among their corporate clients. Tokens will be pegged to real-world currencies, starting with the Japanese yen, with a dollar-denominated version potentially to follow.
Stablecoins will be built on a system that allows interoperability between banks under common technical and legal standards, the report said. While details of the infrastructure remained limited, the initiative marks a coordinated effort to digitize interbank settlements in a way that mirrors existing fiat rails. Notably, MUFG founded a blockchain infrastructure and tokenization platform Progmat in 2023, supported by a broad consortium of Japanese institutions.
The move comes as stablecoin adoption is rapidly spreading globally, with the nation’s regulations in place. US dollar-pegged tokens dominate the market, with Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC taking up the majority of the $300 billion sector.
A group of nine European banks, including heavyweights ING and UniCredit, are reportedly planning to issue a stable euro coin to counter the dominance of US dollar-backed tokens. Major US banks are also considering jointly issuing a stablecoin.
In August, fintech firm JPYC was reportedly licensed as a money transfer operator with the Financial Services Agency (FSA), a necessary step to offer its Japanese yen-backed token legally. Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings also announced plans to distribute Ripple’s US dollar-pegged stablecoin (RLUSD) in Japan as early as the first quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approval.
