In short
- Japan’s MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank, and SMBC have established a council to work on a stablecoin offering.
- The banks plan to launch a jointly issued stablecoin by the end of the 2026 financial year.
- The agreement comes after a surge in stablecoin activity in Japan since the introduction of a licensing authority in 2023.
Three major Japanese banks, MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation established an organization to develop a working strategy to jointly issue a stablecoin by March 2027.
According to the statement, the stablecoin will be issued under a trust agreement, with three banks serving as coordinators, while a “trusted bank or similar institution” will act as a trustee. Banks are looking at the implementation of the agreement in the year 2026, “with an eye to the use of stablecoins in various situations.”
Megabanks began looking at stablecoin releases through a pilot project at the end of the year 2025, the purpose of which was to investigate whether “compliance with the rules and activities” can be achieved “legally and properly” when several banks issue a stablecoin agreement.
This project is working under FSA’s Payment Innovation Projecta special program that was set up to speed it up blockchain– Payment products already available in the FinTech Proof-of-Concept Hub that has supported fintech experiments since 2017.
Japan defined its stablecoin regulations in 2023, and launched changes to the Payment Services Act which created a license to issue and distribute fiat-pegged stablecoins. The law requires that certified stablecoins be issued by licensed banks, registered service providers, and trust companies. Regulatory clarity since then has enabled several yen-backed stablecoin initiatives.
Opinions of the company JPYC Inc. announced the establishment of the yen-denominated stablecoin, JPYC, in October 2025. SBI Holdings and Startale Group followed in February 2026, showing JPYSCtrust bank-backed yen stablecoin for corporate and cross-border use cases. Recently, the Japan Blockchain Foundation he said in May 2026 it will release a stablecoin-pegged yen, EJPY, on the Japanese Open Chain and Ethereum.
The agreement of the megabanks follows the increase in stablecoin activity in Japan since the rules appeared in 2023. In March 2025, the USDC. sat Japan’s first official stablecoin, issued by crypto exchange SBI. Months later, Ripple and SBI Holdings announced plans to launch the RLUSD dollar-pegged stablecoin in Japan.
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