Bank of Japan: Distributed ledger technology is still in the experimental stage and is not considered for real-world application scenarios

The Bank of Japan said it will not use blockchain for its payment and settlement systems in the short term.

Last year, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda announced the start of a “test drive” of distributed ledger technology (DLT), and now the head of the central bank’s payments department has further elaborated on the specifics of the research.

Masafumi Miya, who is also the head of the central bank’s fintech center, said:

The central bank is conducting DLT trials only to understand how the technology works, and does not intend to use it within the central bank or in payment and settlement systems.

Separately, Miya also revealed that the results of a DLT study jointly initiated by the Bank of Japan’s Settlement Systems Department and the European Central Bank (ECB) will be announced by the end of this year.

In a speech at a Tokyo University financial technology event last December, Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Hiroshi Nakaso called on other central banks to actively participate in the DLT research process.

Since last year, Japanese financial technology developers and other market participants have been working to put the country on the map as a global blockchain leader, with the Japan Blockchain Alliance now numbering more than 120 members.

However, Miya said the Bank of Japan is not “paying attention” to any of the blockchain consortium’s trials.