Japan's lawmakers urged the Japanese government today to highlight the issue of digital currencies at the G7, in June. Specifically they want the government to request that the US—which is leading the summit—puts it on the agenda, reported Reuters.
While Japan is already working on the issuance of its own digital currency, Akira Amari, Japan's Minister for Economic Revitalization—who is leading the collective—said that it would be wise to encourage the US to focus on the topic.
"Japan should work in close coordination with the United States," Amari said. "As part of such efforts, we should ask the United States to set [digital currency] on G7 agenda as chair."
Amari went further and suggested that Japan and the US should collaborate when researching the issuance of digital currencies.
Japan’s increased attention on the topic of digital currencies is a response to China’s upcoming digital Yuan, which could threaten the US dollar’s status as the global reserve currency, as Decrypt has reported previously.
"We live in a stable world led by dollar settlement." Amari notes, "How should we respond if such a foundation collapses and if (China's move) gives rise to a struggle for currency supremacy?"
However, the US has, so far, made few efforts to prepare itself for this eventuality.
Pressing for a digital dollar
While, America's experiments with CBDCs so far have been contained to mere discussions alone, former CFTC chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo has been piling on the pressure for it to go further.
Speaking at a conference in Davos, Giancarlo recently announced a lobbying group focused on pressing for a digital dollar.
"The Project will ultimately seek to identify options for a CBDC solution that enhance monetary policy effectiveness and financial stability," he said, at the time.
Many countries around the world are actively working on their own digital currencies. As reported by Decrypt, The Bank of England now leads a collective of six of the world's largest central banks—including the Bank of Japan. The chief purpose of the banking cooperative is to share knowledge of emergent technologies and assess CBDC use cases.
The Federal Reserve remains absent from the collective, for now.