Best Bitcoin Exchange for Japan

Japan is not exactly known for its innovative spirit on the financial market. In terms of crypto currency, however, the country is now stepping on the gas. By legalizing them, it wants to secure a worldwide lead and become the center of a new digital financial world.

Japan is currently one of the world’s pioneers in young crypto currencies and is an important test case for supervisory authorities worldwide. Since spring 2017, the parliament in Tokyo has approved the cyber currencies Bitcoin and Ether as legal and convertible means of payment. In November 2017, the Accounting Standard Board issued important accounting standards. And since July, there has been no VAT on the purchase and sale of crypto money.

There are numerous reasons why Japan in particular is making financial history in this area. On the one hand, Nippon is drawing lessons from the collapse of MTGox, once Tokyo’s largest trading platform for digital crypto currencies, where 650,000 bitcoins have disappeared, resulting in $450 million in losses. The financial regulators want to prevent a repetition at least on Japanese soil and now create a legal framework.

On the other hand, with the rapid approval of the digital means of payment, the tax authority’s primary goal is to fundamentally modernise the country’s sleepy money industry and bring more dynamism to the market for financial innovations. Tokyo is hoping above all for more investment in creative Fintech start-ups. Investments in the IT infrastructure for the production and storage of cyber-payments could bring strong growth. Last but not least, the Japanese government hopes that investments in the infrastructure of the cyber currency will have a technological impact in other areas outside the financial world.

Legal Grey Zones Prevent Since April 2017

Since April 2017, the Japanese Financial Service Agency (FSA) has experienced a veritable rush of applicants for a license to open a trading center for digital currencies. Approximately a dozen operating licenses have now been issued, and trading of 17 crypto currencies has been approved. But the process is expensive, hurdlesome, and by no means all candidates are successful. Operators of Bitcoin exchanges must have a minimum of equity, register with the state and adhere to strict regulations, such as those to combat money laundering. Operators must also be able to identify their customers. This is contrary to the very idea of cyber money, because it knows no names, only checksums and cryptographic keys. Although the currency loses some of its anonymity and independence as a result, Tokyo wants to use regulation above all to create legal certainty and prevent the emergence of legal grey areas.

According to many participants, the effort is worthwhile despite the strict regulation. Applicants are speculating on the growing interest of Japanese private investors and thus above all on the money of “Mrs. Watanabe”. This is an already legendary group of Japanese investors, most of whom are housewives and pensioners, who invest on the international currency markets from their home computers and settle difference transactions with currencies for around ten trillion dollars every quarter. If even a small part of this would benefit the Bitcoin market, the crypto money business would take off. Financial advisors already offer a number of seminars on how digital money works and how to invest in it. By bringing Bitcoins into a legal framework, Japan aims to reassure consumers that trading platforms cannot escape investor and consumer protection.

Cyber-money is gaining ground in the retail sector

Bitcoins have long since ceased to be a niche product in Japan. Interest in digitally encrypted money is even growing by leaps and bounds. Cyber money is gaining ground above all in the retail trade and is thus losing its image as a speculative means of payment for computer freaks and nerds. One of the major Japanese electronics retailers, Bic Camera, has recently accepted Bitcoins as a means of payment in two Tokyo branches, the gas supplier Nippon Gas recognizes cyber money, and Peach Aviation is the first Japanese airline to accept the crypto currency to pay for air tickets. Since the end of 2017, the first tickets can be purchased with the crypto currency. Peach Airline is also planning to install Bitcoin terminals in numerous airport terminals. In order to increase their attractiveness, the low-cost airline intends to work more closely with local authorities and companies in the future.

“We expect Japanese and foreign tourists to pay in up to 400,000 deals with Bitcoin in early 2018,” says Midori Kanemitsu, Chief Financial Officer of Bitcoin’s largest exchange, Bitflyer. A number of companies, including Bitflyer, are already advertising Bitcoin on Japanese television. Analysts see this as an important sign that the means of payment has now reached the mass market. Bitflyer has received venture capital from Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mizuho Financial Group, life insurer Dai-Ichi Life Insurance and a number of corporations and is preparing its debut in the United States.

Novel investment funds in sight

There are no limits to creativity. The online service provider GMO has opened its own Bitcoin exchange for private investors. Like any other currency, Bitcoins can be traded on this trading platform with buying and selling rates as well as with difference contracts.

In May 2017, a development team from Japan introduced “Beth”, a deep learning investment fund based on Ethereum. Ethereum uses the crypto currency ether as a means of payment for computing services. Beth combines deep learning methods with economic expertise. The aim is to create a new type of investment fund that will use machine learning methods to reduce risk in investment decisions. Beth’s aim is to get the new technologies from the big Wall Street investors and make them available to anyone interested.

Online currencies like Bitcoin don’t really need banks. Because unlike ordinary money like the euro or the yen, there is no central bank that creates new money. Rather, it is a virtual means of payment based on computer networks. Thus, an individual user can create new digital coins with his PC, in which his computer solves complicated computing tasks.

Nevertheless, Japan’s banks in particular, which have been suffering from a weak demand for credit for years, also see opportunities to expand their business and are particularly interested in the technology behind the crypto currencies, Blockchain, not least to automate and accelerate their back offices. The financial groups MUFG, Mizuho and SMFG are therefore taking part with their own digital money. In 2018, MUFG plans to unveil its own currency, the MUFG Coin, in order to use blockchain technology within the company. Japanese users will be able to connect their bank accounts to an app. MUFG customers will be able to exchange money from their current account for MUFG coins at a one-to-one rate and transfer it to affiliated stores or friends and acquaintances. There will also be ATMs for MUFG Coins.

About Japan

Japan is a 6852-island East Asian state in the Pacific Ocean, which indirectly borders Russia to the north, North Korea and South Korea to the west, China to the northwest, and Taiwan to the southwest, and is the fourth largest island state in the world in terms of area. The de facto capital and largest urban settlement is Tokyo.

The formation of the Japanese state began in the 5th century under the cultural influence of the Chinese Empire. Japan had been in contact with the West since the 16th century and became a great power in the 19th century, acquiring colonies such as Korea and Taiwan, taking part in both world wars and briefly dominating large parts of Southeast and East Asia. After the defeat in the Second World War the empire was not abolished, but the emperor was reduced as “symbol of the state” to ceremonial tasks without independent authority in affairs of state.

Japan is counted among the more densely populated countries of Asia and, with 127 million inhabitants, ranks 10th among the most populous countries in the world. The Japanese population is predominantly concentrated on the four main islands and consists of 99% Japanese. Minorities include Koreans, Chinese and Filipinos. Most of the inhabitants are Shintoists and Buddhists.

Japan is historically the first industrial nation in Asia to have a highly developed economy. The innovation-friendly economic structure, which includes a very large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in addition to the internationally renowned large companies, is considered to be one of the world’s leaders in research, development and production in the mechanical engineering, automotive, electronics and chemical industries. Like Germany, Japan is poor in raw materials and highly dependent on imports for both energy and food supplies.

The crime rate in Japan is low, but Japan is the world’s most earthquake-prone country. On an annual average, around 1,500 earthquakes are registered seismically, several of which can also be clearly seen in Tokyo. South and West Japan are also frequently hit by typhoons in late summer. Strong winds, floods and landslides can result in considerable damage. Of the 110 volcanoes considered to be active, 47 are currently permanently monitored.

• Continent Asia
• Coordinates 36 00 N, 138 00 O
• Border length 0
• Length of coastline 29,751 km
• Total land area 377,915 km²
• Highest elevation Fujiyama (3.776 m)

Climate

The Japanese chain of islands stretches in a long arc from north (45 degrees latitude) to south (20 degrees latitude). Therefore, the climate in Japan is very different; from the cold temperate climate zone in Hokkaidō with cold and snowy winters to the subtropics in Okinawa Prefecture. In addition, there is the influence of winds – in winter from the Asian continent to the sea and in summer from the sea to the continent. In late June and early July, a large part of the annual precipitation falls in the south as a monsoon-like rain front (梅雨前線, baiu zensen).

In early summer, the typhoon season begins, during which the south and southwest of Japan in particular are affected by cyclones over the Pacific Ocean. Statistically, most typhoons reach Japan in September, although they are most common in the Pacific in August.

The winds also contribute to Japan being increasingly affected by transnational pollution.

Origin of the name Nihon or Nippon. Japan, the “land of the rising sun”, derives from nichi (“sun”) and hon (“root”, “origin”). The word “Japan” derives from the Chinese pronunciation of the same word. The Chinese called it Japuen. From this designation the name Japan, customary in Europe, arose.

Towns

(F 2015) Tokyo (Tokyo) 9,272,565 inhabitants (A 2015 38.0 million), Yokohama 3,726,167, Osaka 2,691,742 (A 20.2 million), Nagoya 2,296,014 (A 9.4 million), Sapporo 1,953,784, Fukuoka 1,538,510, Kobe 1,537,860, Kawasaki 1.475.300, Kyoto 1.474.570, Saitama 1.264.253, Hiroshima 1.194.507, Sendai 1.082.185, Chiba 972.639, Kitakyushu 961.815, Sakai 839.891, Niigata 810.514, Hamamatsu 798.252

Ethnicities

Japanese – last census 2015 (prel.): 127,110,047 inhabitants – over 99% Japanese, 25,000-200,000 Ainu (aborigines) on Hokkaido

Religions

Followers of both Shinto and Buddhism Buddhists 84%, Others 16% (including 0.7% Christians)