Does Japan fall behind in the crypto industry ?

[Marcellin9]

As one of the world's leading economies with countless cutting edge technologies, Japan has maintained its high-profile status for many decades. Even in this World Cup, Japan has defeated Germany and Spain, striving to the next level of competition. It seems that Japan does not need to prove to be a great nation to the world. However, in the crypto industry, we barely heard anything great from Japan, no leading blockchain ecosystem or any cryptocurrency exchange alike. Why ? Please correct me if I am wrong.

[mk4]

Not really sure because I'm not from Japan, but they have a few exchanges as far as I know; and just recently Binance bought the Sakura Exchange: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/30/binance-enters-japan-with-acquisition-of-regulated-crypto-exchange-sakura/

As for blockchain ecosystems, isn't the main point of most(if not all) blockchain projects the fact that they don't need to be tied to a specific country(but instead global)?

[Mr. Magkaisa]

As one of the world's leading economies with countless cutting edge technologies, Japan has maintained its high-profile status for many decades. Even in this World Cup, Japan has defeated Germany and Spain, striving to the next level of competition. It seems that Japan does not need to prove to be a great nation to the world. However, in the crypto industry, we barely heard anything great from Japan, no leading blockchain ecosystem or any cryptocurrency exchange alike. Why ? Please correct me if I am wrong.

  - As far as I know, the country of Japan is also a believer in cryptocurrency and is also open to it. Knowing if this country is also among the developed countries because of the technology they have.

I can't say that Japan is left behind when it comes to cryptocurrency. Because recently Binance has been reacquired in this country of regulations as far as I know dude read this

[Zaguru12]

Not from Japan but they strongly have a hold on crypto currency. Coupled with the fact that people rumoured Satoshi to be from there. Compared to other big Asian countries like China they seem friendly to bitcoin adoption. I even read sometime ago that they relaxes some of there laws to allow people trade in bitcoin. They also have registered exchanges like Bitflyer, coincheck. The country also has some bitcoin ATM which is another step that they are actually friendly to crypto currency.

The image below from statista shows percentage of Japanese that uses crypto currency. Although the statistics its a bit old I feel there has been massive changes to that percentage since its laws against it has been relaxed.

[Reid]

Bitcoin is accepted even before as far as my knowledge which I read from news. But we don't hear a lot of noise about it because their system is working. The no physical contact transaction which just use QR codes to pay everything. Their own digital transactions. If it's working and it's not giving them any trouble, then why change it?
They are one of the top in cashless basis transaction but it's not just cryptocurrencies.

[tabas]

As one of the world's leading economies with countless cutting edge technologies, Japan has maintained its high-profile status for many decades. Even in this World Cup, Japan has defeated Germany and Spain, striving to the next level of competition. It seems that Japan does not need to prove to be a great nation to the world. However, in the crypto industry, we barely heard anything great from Japan, no leading blockchain ecosystem or any cryptocurrency exchange alike. Why ? Please correct me if I am wrong.

They've been an open country to crypto and blockchain and there's no problem to them because it's legal there.
Like for this news: Japan to Further Relax Crypto Rules by Easing Listings of Tokens
So, in many things they are thriving and also recovering just like the other countries that have been hit badly by the pandemic. The JPY has also lost a part of its value but inflation there isn't that high as the other countries due to the high prices of fuel.

[Lucius]

As one of the world's leading economies with countless cutting edge technologies, Japan has maintained its high-profile status for many decades.

And did you know that Japan is the first in something else, not very popular?

Japan, with its population of 127,185,332, has the highest national debt in the world at 234.18% of its GDP, followed by Greece at 181.78%. Japan's national debt currently sits at ¥1,028 trillion ($9.087 trillion USD).[/u] After the stock market crashed in Japan, the government bailed out banks and insurance companies and provided them with low-interest credit. Banking institutions had to be consolidated and nationalized after a period of time and other fiscal stimulus initiatives were used to help reboot the struggling economy. Unfortunately, these actions caused Japan’s debt level to skyrocket.

Also, considering the fact that Mt.Gox was based in Japan and that they have not been able to solve this problem to this day perhaps best speaks to the fact that not everything is in that country as some people think.

As for the sports results you mentioned, beating Germany, which is not even a shadow of what it used to be, or Spain, which wanted to avoid winning the first place in the group in order to avoid Brazil in further competition, is not really something to judge their strength on. The real test is next Monday when they play against the finalists of the last World Cup.

[arwin100]

As one of the world's leading economies with countless cutting edge technologies, Japan has maintained its high-profile status for many decades. Even in this World Cup, Japan has defeated Germany and Spain, striving to the next level of competition. It seems that Japan does not need to prove to be a great nation to the world. However, in the crypto industry, we barely heard anything great from Japan, no leading blockchain ecosystem or any cryptocurrency exchange alike. Why ? Please correct me if I am wrong.

Crypto is legal in japan and there are huge number of users are in that country so most provably they also need cryptocurrency for daily usage on some japanese citizens. Maybe you just didn't notice it but actually there is a big exchange which is Sakura exchange has been acquired by binance for expansion plan on japan you can read the article here about their acquisition Binance acquired sakura exchange article

For that Binance see a huge market there that's why we cannot say that they don't need crypto because there are to many people use this before and even by now.
 

[Zlantann]

As one of the world's leading economies with countless cutting edge technologies, Japan has maintained its high-profile status for many decades. Even in this World Cup, Japan has defeated Germany and Spain, striving to the next level of competition. It seems that Japan does not need to prove to be a great nation to the world. However, in the crypto industry, we barely heard anything great from Japan, no leading blockchain ecosystem or any cryptocurrency exchange alike. Why ? Please correct me if I am wrong.

Japan is a Bitcoin-friendly country because the currency can be used for any form of payment without restrictions. But exchanges are subjected to the strict anti-money laundering (AML) legislation which put them under government regulations.

I also agree that based on the technological advancement of Japan they should have been a key player in the crypto space. Maybe the focus of the Japanese government is not on the crypto industry or most crypto companies are scared of regulations. They don't want to be liable when the company fails..

[Minecache]

They're not too loud doesn't mean they're lagging, as I know japan has been a pretty open country to crypto for a long time but what I don't like about them is the government taxing relatively high who earn in crypto. But you're right about not having too much fuss, a lot of projects come from Korea, but I also hardly see any projects with Japanese developers behind.
Recently, Binance has officially entered the Japanese market with the acquisition of sakura exchange, hoping that binance can promote the crypto industry to become stronger in Japan.

[Hydrogen]

Japan has no military capability worth speaking of, which leaves it a vassal state to foreign interests and foreign powers. They bully japan and force it to comply with international demands. This has been demonstrated in several different areas over the past few decades. While japan has been a hotbed of technological advancement, it is not independent enough to forge its own policies on cryptocurrencies and is forced to comply with international regulation and narratives.

If anyone wants an example of how japan has been unable to stand up for itself, they can look at the large number of japanese prime ministers who were forced to resign over the last 20 years. Unfortunately politics, military and economic concerns do factor in here. In ways which many might not expect.

Japan's culture trends towards embracing long term value, over short term gain. Culturally it parallels the HODL nature of bitcoin and other crypto. Naturally japan should be a hotspot for crypto development.

[BigBos]

It's only natural that almost everyone doesn't know any news from Japan, even though Japan is categorized as a developed country, both from economic, political, social and other perspectives, it's as if nothing has happened in Japan. Values of mutual respect and respect, especially respecting a teacher, make Japanese people more disciplined and have very good ethics. Judging from the criminal record in Japan, it is very small compared to other countries.

Japan has no military capability worth speaking of, which leaves it a vassal state to foreign interests and foreign powers. They bully japan and force it to comply with international demands. This has been demonstrated in several different areas over the past few decades. While japan has been a hotbed of technological advancement, it is not independent enough to forge its own policies on cryptocurrencies and is forced to comply with international regulation and narratives.

Yes, maybe this is what causes Japan to prefer silence and not act much because the cryptocurrency is still in conflict with some world leaders, or maybe they are researching cryptography technology first without disclosing it to any media so that failures like Mt Gox don't happen again.

[electronicash]

afaik they have adopted BTC long time ago. there were articles about it even in 2017. Mtgox (Karpeles) and Roger Ver stays in Japan because they can spend BTC casually in Japan. that was years ago. i don't know today.

Japan has no military capability worth speaking of, which leaves it a vassal state to foreign interests and foreign powers. They bully japan and force it to comply with international demands. This has been demonstrated in several different areas over the past few decades. While japan has been a hotbed of technological advancement, it is not independent enough to forge its own policies on cryptocurrencies and is forced to comply with international regulation and narratives.

If anyone wants an example of how japan has been unable to stand up for itself, they can look at the large number of japanese prime ministers who were forced to resign over the last 20 years. Unfortunately politics, military and economic concerns do factor in here. In ways which many might not expect.

Japan's culture trends towards embracing long term value, over short term gain. Culturally it parallels the HODL nature of bitcoin and other crypto. Naturally japan should be a hotspot for crypto development.

they use to be leaders in the technology. Nokia was the first to have made the phones available to everyone. Japan was suppressed by a threatened empire. they didn't push back unlike China and Nokor. today, the seas near Japan is where they test their missiles to see if US reacts and will go to war for Japan. sad reality.

[stompix]

Even in this World Cup, Japan has defeated Germany and Spain, striving to the next level of competition.

And Ghana has defeated South Korea, does this make Ghana more technologically advanced in any field than SK?
Or more bitcoin-friendly?

they use to be leaders in the technology. Nokia was the first to have made the phones available to everyone. Japan was suppressed by a threatened empire.

Do you actually think that Nokia is a Japanese brand?
God, it's so funny to see all these experts in geopolitics and global economy casting their opinion when they don't know even basic stuff.

Anyhow, how does somebody define being in the first place in the crypto industry?
Have exchanges operating from your country? Then the Bahamas was a leading country till...a month ago!
Developing shit tokens that fail two months after launch?
What are the others criteria cause the two above really suck!?

[Davian144]

However, in the crypto industry, we barely heard anything great from Japan, no leading blockchain ecosystem or any cryptocurrency exchange alike. Why ? Please correct me if I am wrong.

If that's the question, I can give a little answer that in the past Japan imposed exorbitant taxes on crypto exchanges and also on crypto users so that there was no blockchain ecosystem and exchanges that developed well there and became famous like some of the existing exchanges at the time. I say this after reading an article that really concerns your question.

However, in another article it was also stated that the Japan Crypto and Virtual Asset Exchange Association as the regulator dealing with crypto assets in Japan has recently released a plan document to facilitate crypto laws related to official exchanges to register digital currencies by relaxing their screening process.

Reference:
[1] https://www.fortuneidn.com/finance/
[2] https://wartaeconomic.co.id/read453193/

[BRINIRHA]

I think japan is not lagging behind in crypto at all. However, it seems that the tax policy implemented there is quite difficult for crypto players there. But at least crypto has received attention from the government there. but the high taxes imposed make many crypto players leave there. an example of this is the crypto project Astar Network - a multi-chain decentralized application hub built by someone called Sota Watanabe. (Sourch - https://www.fortuneidn.com/finance/amp/tanayastri/pajak-kripto-jepang-bikin-sebagian-pemain-hengkang )

And there are still many crypto projects originating from Japan. However, the policies that were too heavy from the Japanese government could indeed make people there more closed off not to expose their projects and prefer to leave there.

[Zanab247]

I guess, Japan government are still looking for way to remove the tax they imposed to crypto users in the country, because they came to discovered that  crypto users are not earning well because of the tax imposed on them compared to other countries that made it free from their citizens to earn well  from their crypto investment. I believe, very soon Japan citizens will start enjoying what other countries like El Salvador, Brazil and other countries that made crypto legalized for their people to use it positively to grow their businesses in the country.  

[AbuBhakar]

They're not too loud doesn't mean they're lagging, as I know japan has been a pretty open country to crypto for a long time but what I don't like about them is the government taxing relatively high who earn in crypto. But you're right about not having too much fuss, a lot of projects come from Korea, but I also hardly see any projects with Japanese developers behind.
Recently, Binance has officially entered the Japanese market with the acquisition of sakura exchange, hoping that binance can promote the crypto industry to become stronger in Japan.

It may not only too noticeable since there much more other developers in Asia like China and Singapore who widely promote their projects than them. Plus the strict implementation of crypto transactions in them makes them silent about it. But in terms of accepting and having exchanges they have local exchanges that are approve by their regulators where they can buy and sell their crypto. Since Japan is more popular in their Technology advancement as welll tourism and entertainment, the focus of cryptocurrency in their country is not much a talk of the town but we still see they are making progress like having Binance.

[Flexystar]

Not really sure because I'm not from Japan, but they have a few exchanges as far as I know; and just recently Binance bought the Sakura Exchange: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/30/binance-enters-japan-with-acquisition-of-regulated-crypto-exchange-sakura/

As for blockchain ecosystems, isn't the main point of most(if not all) blockchain projects the fact that they don't need to be tied to a specific country(but instead global)?

Actually before 4-5 years ago Japan was literally doing amazing things with the crypto. They even experimented the Bitcoin OTC program where over the counter buying and selling was completely legalised throughout the country and they started with it real quick. I think in 2017 bill Japan had many things to contribute on since they were using bitcoin on larger scale. Now I am not sure the documented scale matches to this or not but definitely Japan has lost the track after covid. In fact there is also not much of news about the Japan recently which connects with bitcoin. That’s actually strange.

[Raflesia]

I don't really know about this but recently I read that the Association of Japanese Crypto Asset Exchanges (JVCEA) is currently starting to loosen some of the things related to Crypto in its listings so indeed this could be a good signal for Japanese citizens and indirectly encouraging that they are now starting to open up with Crypto.
I don't know much about this but one thing is certain when something like this happens it will most likely generate more interest than before.