The Bank of Japan (BOJ) announced that it will launch its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot programme in April this year to test the use of a digital yen.
The central bank said that it will complete its Proof of Concept (PoC) in March 2023 as per schedule before its embarks on the pilot programme a month later.
During the pilot programme, BOJ will develop a system for experiments, in which a central system, intermediary network systems, intermediary systems, and endpoint devices are configured in an integrated manner.
BOJ will also establish a CBDC Forum to discuss and explore a wide range of topics with private businesses related to retail payments. Additionally, the central bank plans to establish working groups by taking into account linkages among the topics in consideration.
The regulator will be selecting participants for the CBDC Forum and contractors for developing the experimental system this year.
The findings gained through the development and examination of the experimental system as well as discussions from the forum will be shared.
