Three of Japan's biggest banks will jointly issue yen-pegged stablecoins by March 2027, the most significant institutional push into digital payments by a G7 nation's financial establishment.
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Japan's three largest banks to issue stablecoins by March 2027
Three of Japan's biggest banks will jointly issue yen-pegged stablecoins by March 2027, the most significant institutional push into digital payments by a G7 nation's financial establishment.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group will jointly issue yen-pegged stablecoins during the fiscal year ending March 2027, the three banks said Wednesday, extending a regulatory pilot supervised by Japan's Financial Services Agency since November 2025.
"The three banking groups will set up a council to examine operational frameworks and prepare for issuance," the banks said in a joint statement.
The token will run on Progmat, a distributed ledger platform developed by MUFG and NTT Data, with a US dollar-denominated version planned for later release. The consortium's combined enterprise client base covers more than 300,000 companies, giving the stablecoin immediate distribution scale without the regulatory friction of consumer onboarding. The FSA ran the pilot with all three institutions simultaneously, a choice that shows a preference for a single shared standard over competing bank tokens.
The plan lands as stablecoins have eclipsed ACH network volumes in the US this year, sharpening competitive pressure on legacy payment infrastructure. A ruling party panel this month called for promoting yen-based stablecoins for settlement across Asia, according to a June 1 proposal. What remains open is the governance structure — whether the three banks issue a single token under one brand or operate shared rails that each bank draws on separately will determine how replicable the model is for other multi-institution stablecoin efforts.
The Japanese megabank initiative mirrors a broader shift by regulated financial institutions away from third-party tokens such as Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC toward instruments issued directly from their balance sheets. JPMorgan brought its deposit token to Coinbase's Base network earlier this year, bridging its Kinexys platform to public rails and enabling institutional clients to receive round-the-clock dollar settlement. SoFi pushed its SoFiUSD bank token to roughly 15 million members in May 2026, becoming one of the first consumer-facing bank stablecoins in the US.
Japan's move carries particular weight because the three largest financial groups are acting in concert rather than competing on separate standards. The approach reduces fragmentation risk for corporate clients and aligns with the FSA's broader push to use blockchain technology to enhance payment systems, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said in November when the pilot was announced.
Startup JPYC began issuing yen-pegged stablecoins in October 2025, marking small but steady change in a country where cash and credit cards remain the dominant means of payment. The megabank consortium, with its 300,000-plus corporate client base, represents a step change in scale for Japan's digital payments infrastructure.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
