Bank of Japan Contemplates the Introduction of a Digital Yen

[mlawson71]

Lately, many central banks are launching initiatives to create their own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The Bank of Japan (BoJ) is the latest such bank to do so. If they succeed, the local Japanese economy will change quite a bit and that will inevitably lead to global changes as well.
BoJ issued a statement addressing the technical possibilities of such a currency:

“[we] check the feasibility of CBDC from technical perspectives, collaborate with other central banks and relevant institutions, and consider introducing a CBDC.”
This is the first time the Bank of Japan has released a statement that addresses the efforts to introduce a digital yet. According to it, BoJ needs to overcome two main obstacles – resilience, which refers to offline users having access to this currency, and universal access, which means that all users will require a smartphone. The latter, apparently, is a problem, because as it turns out, only 65% of Japanese citizens use smartphones.
Source
A digital yen may change the world even more than a digital yuan could, I think.