The Bank of Japan has launched the first phase of testing the national digital currency or Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as stated in the Bank report.
At this stage, the bank will develop a test environment for CBDC and conduct experiments with its main functions. The first phase will last until March 2022.
According to the roadmap, After the first phase the Central Bank will offer the digital Yen to private enterprises and end users.
In March 2021, the governor of the Bank of Japan, Haruhiko Kuroda, said that the regulator had no plans to issue a CBDC soon.
In the 2020 summer, the Bank of Japan created a working group to study central bank digital currencies and to participate in joint research with regulators of other countries.