Bitcoin Forum

A Japanese court came to a surprising conclusion, ruling that bitcoin is not a tangible property worthy of legal protection, which stands in contrast to rulings in the United States and elsewhere which have determined that bitcoin is a valuable commodity worthy of legal protections.

https://99bitcoins.com/japanese-court-rules-bitcoin-not-worthy-of-legal-protections/

Wtf are they smoking there on that island. The fact that you cannot touch something takes nothing away from the fact that it can be valuable! This is a significant ruling in favor of Mark Karpeles and all the other people who are scamming people out of Crypto currencies.

We will see a flood of scammers flocking to Japan to operate their business from there, because they have legal protection when they run with your Bitcoin. Once again Mark is showing us the finger. ^Hmmmm^ 

Having sent a few "stolen bitcoin" reports into fincen myself,  I can say that the U.S. takes the same exact position as Japan in practice.  Japan is just stating the facts that there's nothing they can do about stolen bitcoins.   If you want the government to protect your money, then use something the government can work with like fiat or food stamps and use only government registered financial institutions.  American Banker Magazine has some good tips in that regard.

The only alternative is to complain in the forums about not being able to have it both ways.

This is a surprising decision. I am sure that bitcoin users who lost their coins in Mt Gox would go in for appeal against the decision. This may not be the final say on the status of Bitcoin.