Japan Plans 24/7 Trading Mechanism for Government Bonds by 2026

Japan's major banks and securities firms are advancing plans to establish a 24-hour, 365-day trading mechanism for Japanese government bonds by 2026. According to Odaily, the initiative aims to transition government bonds into digital securities. The plan involves migrating the registration and management of Japanese government bonds to a blockchain-based distributed ledger system, enabling issuance and circulation to be processed on-chain. Additionally, a stablecoin system will be introduced at the settlement layer to facilitate low-cost, high-speed fund clearing without traditional banking intermediaries, enhancing institutional investors' fund utilization efficiency. This move will allow bonds and other traditional securities to be issued and traded as digital securities on-chain, driving the Japanese government bond market towards an always-on, programmable financial infrastructure.