Senior BOJ official says no change to stance that it has no plan to issue central bank digital currency

Reuters with the headlines, citing a senior BOJ official

• BOJ believes initiating experiments on CBDC at this stage is a necessary step
• BOJ will begin to test technical feasibility of core functions, features from April
• If BOJ judges necessary to go a step further, it will also consider pilot program that involves payment service providers and end users

Baby steps but it looks like things are starting to move along for the BOJ in issuing its own digital currency. It will still take time as major central banks are likely to look at one another before proceeding but expect more talk on this in the coming years.