Selective Disclosure and Privacy-by-Design in Japan’s Blockchain Adoption

Japan’s blockchain efforts have taken on a more practical tone as major institutions assess where the technology fits into everyday financial and industrial workflows. A clear signal arrived in late 2025 when the government backed a project led by the country’s three largest banks to issue stablecoins for payments and settlement under the Financial Services Agency, emphasising money movement and trade settlement over volatility.

Privacy concerns shape how far organisations will go. Public chains expose transaction details by default, creating traceability and clean audit trails but also surfacing information in ways many teams are unprepared to manage. The Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI), tightened by amendments approved in 2020 and implemented from 2022, raises expectations around breach reporting, individual rights and cross-border handling—requirements that sit uneasily alongside immutable, shared ledgers.

Japan

japan, blockchain, stablecoins, payments, settlement, privacy, appi, public chains, traceability, selective disclosure