Tokyo13 Japanese brokerages plan crypto exchange-traded funds.
SBI, Rakuten, Nomura, and Daiwa are among those awaiting the Financial Services Agency’s final rules as Japan reclassifies crypto from payment tool to security.
Parliament must pass the draft amendment before reclassification takes effect in fiscal 2027.
Sources: CoinDesk
THE LEGAL PIVOT
Japan currently regulates crypto under the Payment Services Act — the same law that governs prepaid cards and remittance. Reclassifying it under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act treats Bitcoin like a stock: insider-trading rules apply, disclosure obligations attach, and ETFs become legally constructible.
WHY THE TAX MATTERS MORE
Under the payment-tool regime, crypto gains were taxed as miscellaneous income at progressive rates up to 55%. Securities classification drops this to a flat 20% capital gains rate — the same as stocks. For high earners, this is a 35-point tax cut that single-handedly unlocks institutional flows.
THE MRS. WATANABE FACTOR
Japanese households hold roughly half their financial assets in cash — over $7 trillion sitting in zero-yield deposits. The retail FX-trading archetype, nicknamed Mrs. Watanabe, already moves global currency markets from her kitchen table. A regulated crypto ETF channel taps the same pool.
THE BROKERAGE CAST
The applicants are not crypto-native firms — they are Japan's traditional financial pillars. SBI runs the country's largest online brokerage; Rakuten owns a megabank and a securities arm; Nomura is the oldest investment bank in Asia; Daiwa is its century-old rival.
THE MT. GOX LEGACY
Tokyo-based Mt. Gox handled 70% of global Bitcoin trades before collapsing in 2014 with 850,000 BTC missing. Japan responded with the world's first crypto exchange licensing regime in 2017. Eleven years of cautious incrementalism have produced the most thoroughly stress-tested regulatory framework in the world.
THE QUIZ
Japan's framework matters globally because it forces a question other jurisdictions have ducked: is crypto a payment system or an investment?