Japan Seen Needing U.S. Help to Check China’s Digital Yuan

As reported on Bloomberg, “Japan needs closer cooperation with the U.S. to curb the potential influence of China’s planned digital currency, according to a senior lawmaker in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party.

“Speaking ahead of the Friday release of proposals aimed at paving the way for digital currency use in Japan, Norihiro Nakayama, vice minister for foreign affairs, said he hoped the Federal Reserve would partner with six other central banks including the Bank of Japan in studying digital currencies.

“’We sense the digital yuan is a challenge to the existing global reserve currency system and currency hegemony,’ said Nakayama, a top member of the ruling party group that drafted the proposals. ‘Without the U.S., we cannot counter China’s efforts to challenge the existing reserve currency and international settlement system.’

“The comments indicate the heightened concern among policy makers in Japan over the likely impact of a digitized yuan expected for later this year. China’s plan and Facebook’s efforts to launch its own Libra currency have sparked central banks around the world to get up to speed on how digital currencies would function and what their impact could be…”

Continue to read the full article on Bloomberg.