Japan Finally Approves Bill To Amend National Crypto Regulation Laws

By Rishma Banerjee

As per reports published on 31st May, the Japanese House of Representatives has officially approved a new bill in order to amend national laws that govern crypto regulation. The statement has been prepared by Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) and was accepted by the House in mid-March of this year. An update on the FSA’s website reveals that it has now has been passed by a majority vote in the House of Councilors plenary session.

The bill basically looks to introduce amendments to two national laws that are applicable to crypto assets — the Act on Settlement of Funds and the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. It is now expected that since the bills have been passed, the revised acts are to come into force in April 2020. The amendments that will be introduced will noticeably tighten cryptocurrency regulation, in an effort to promote user protection, more robustly regulate crypto derivatives trading, mitigate industry risks such as exchange hacks, and broadly establish a regulatory framework that is more transparent for the new asset class.

As reported earlier, the bill also establishes a legal name change for cryptocurrencies, which was formerly known in th country as visrtual currencies to “crypto assets.”

The bill also provides for stronger legislation for crypto margin trading, limiting leverage to two to four times the initial deposit.

It has been noted according to the reports that there is reportedly a view within the industry that regulation has thereby been tightened, some consider that Japan’s virtual currency regulation will set a global benchmark for regulation in the sector.

In April, Japan’s minister of finance and deputy prime minister, Taro Aso, insisted reporters to stop using the term “virtual currencies” and to shift to the newly introduced legal name. This new definition ostensibly aims to prevent investors from confusing cryptocurrencies with legal tender.

It was also reported earlier this month, that Russia was postponing the adoption of crypto regulation due to a requirement from the Financial Action Task Force that it expand the terminology of a federal bill to legislate important industry terms such as cryptocurrencies and bitcoin (BTC).