Japan’s Finance Minister, Katsunobu Kato, acknowledged that cryptocurrencies could be part of diversified investment portfolios, according to Bloomberg.
At the Web3 WebX 2025 conference in Tokyo, the official expressed his intention to foster a robust ecosystem for trading, considering the growing user base of digital currencies.
“Crypto assets carry risks associated with high volatility, but by creating an appropriate investment environment, they can become part of diversified portfolios,” Kato stated.
He noted that the government aims to avoid excessive regulation of the industry, striving for a balanced approach.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) included in its program for the July elections to the House of Councillors measures to control insider trading and introduce separate taxation for cryptocurrencies.
André Dragosch, head of European research at Bitwise, pointed out that currently, realized profits in digital assets in Japan are taxed at a rate of 55%. The proposed LDP tax reform will reduce it to 20%, the expert clarified.
JAPAN’S FINANCE MINISTER: Crypto assets can be part of diversified investments.
SBR in Japan incoming? 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/V41Xd4hEPe
— André Dragosch, PhD⚡ (@Andre_Dragosch) August 25, 2025
Institutional Interest in Digital Assets Grows
Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Group announced a partnership with decentralized oracle platform Chainlink. The collaboration aims to accelerate the adoption of blockchain, digital assets, and tokenization in global markets.
The initiative primarily targets Japan and the Asia-Pacific region.
A survey conducted by SBI Digital Asset Holdings of over 50 financial institutions revealed a significant increase in demand and availability of digital assets over the past 12 months.
76% of respondents expressed intentions to invest in tokenized securities. These products offer several advantages, such as cost reduction and shorter settlement times.
The main obstacle to their widespread adoption, according to survey participants, is the lack of appropriate institutional-grade infrastructure.
The partners will focus on developing the use of Chainlink’s blockchain solutions for scenarios involving RWA products, tokenized funds, and regulated stablecoins. Another focus will be simplifying payment operations for currency and cross-border transactions.
In August, SBI introduced new partnerships with stablecoin issuer Circle, fintech firm Ripple Labs behind XRP, and Web3 company Startale. With the latter, the conglomerate plans to develop a platform for trading tokenized assets. The platform is expected to provide round-the-clock trading, accelerated settlements, and fractional ownership.
Collaboration with Circle and Ripple involves promoting the firms’ dollar-pegged “stablecoins” USDC and RLUSD in Japan, respectively.
The Financial Services Agency intends to approve the issuance of the first yen-based stablecoin this autumn. In April, the creation of such an asset was announced by Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, behind Japan’s second-largest bank, SMBC.