Japan has been exploring the global Web3 market leadership by leveraging its existing rich game, animation, and character IP with Web3 technology. Although the Japanese government, including the Liberal Democratic Party's 2024 Web3 industry white paper, has been proactively supporting the Web3 industry, the practical market expansion and achievements have fallen short of expectations due to strict regulations, high virtual asset taxation, and slow review and approval procedures. However, currently, regulatory amendments are underway to reclassify virtual assets as a type of financial product, including reducing virtual asset taxation (from the current maximum of 55% to 20%, the same as stock trading capital gains tax) and restricting insider trading. The detailed amendments are expected to be announced around early 2026. The author anticipates that Japan will also accelerate regulatory relaxation for technological innovation, influenced by the recent U.S. government's virtual asset regulation introduction.
Surge in Virtual Asset Treasury Strategy Companies
Japanese companies unrelated to Web3 business, such as the hotel company Metaplanet (holding 17,132 BTC as of July 29, 2025, worth over $2 billion), AI company Quantum Solutions, energy company Remixpoint, and synthetic fiber manufacturer Kitabo, have successively announced their entry into Bitcoin treasury strategies centered on listed companies in July this year. Furthermore, the spread of treasury strategies for Ethereum and other altcoins is expected to accelerate in the near future.
RWA Real Estate Tokenization
While asset tokenization is occurring across financial products and various fields, real estate tokenization is gaining attention in Japan. In July this year, the Japanese real estate investment company GATES announced plans to tokenize a $75 million property in Tokyo on the Oasys blockchain, targeting foreign investors. They plan to gradually increase the real estate tokenization scale to $20 billion. Oasys, a blockchain initially focused on games founded by Japanese entrepreneurs, has shifted its business strategy to RWA tokenization according to market trends. In the same context, in July, a subsidiary of Japan's largest bank, MUFG, announced the tokenization of a property worth approximately $680 million in Osaka, targeting individual investors. Japan's traditional real estate market had barriers for foreign property purchases due to language barriers, high costs, and low accessibility. Japan has long had a system allowing foreigners to freely purchase real estate without residing in the country, and with the recent appreciation of real estate prices in major Japanese cities, the real estate tokenization sector is expected to grow rapidly.
Web2 Collaborative Use Cases
Following global trends, Japan is seeing the rise of a hybrid model where Web2 large enterprises guide existing users to on-chain platforms, with a prime example being Sony's Ethereum Layer 2 Soneium, launched in January this year. Soneium is preparing infrastructure to Web3-ize Sony's existing game, music, animation IP, and user-created content.
Moreover, instead of forming communities through Non-Fungible Tokens, there are increasing cases of using Non-Fungible Tokens as IP expansion tools targeting existing Web2 users, such as for animations, idols, local characters, tickets, and events. The "Rural Non-Fungible Token" project, jointly implemented by local Japanese governments and private startups, has been targeting tourists since June 2022, designed to issue Non-Fungible Tokens upon visiting specific tourist sites that can be exchanged for goods or encourage local consumption. The project attracted approximately 80,000 tourists, with estimated local consumption effects of around 4.5 billion yen. With the rapidly increasing number of tourists in Japan in recent years, similar projects are expected to grow. These Web2 collaborative use cases ultimately compete on user interfaces, presenting a good opportunity for Korean startups or companies with excellent UI/UX technologies in wallets or DeFi to enter the Japanese market.
Stablecoin Regulatory Relaxation
Japan was the first in the world to legislate stablecoin regulations and gained attention, but due to strict regulatory requirements and lengthy review processes, the stablecoin regulatory system has not yet been activated despite being implemented in June 2023. In March this year, SBI received Japan's first "electronic payment method handler" permit and issued Circle's USDC, which began circulation in Japan in April, being the sole foreign stablecoin. Other major banks and companies like MUFJ and SMBC are still preparing to issue stablecoins. The previous stablecoin regulations included strict provisions requiring 100% of the issued amount to be deposited as demand deposits that can be withdrawn at any time, making it difficult for stablecoin issuers to generate profits. However, recent regulatory relaxation now allows up to 50% to be held in low-risk assets such as short-term Japanese or U.S. government bonds or cancellable time deposits, expected to be implemented by December 2025. Compared to the U.S. regulation GENIUS Act implemented in July this year, which allows flexible holding of various assets without minimum asset ratio requirements, this is still considered a stricter standard.
Turning Point in Change
Japan generally identifies global market trends first and then proceeds a few steps later, but when a few large corporations start promoting something, capital is massively invested nationwide. Therefore, the Japanese Web3 market can be seen as being at a growth stage intersection through regulatory relaxation and pilot projects led by large corporations. The Japanese Web3 market is positively evolving with a structural transformation integrated with existing industries, rather than being a trend of simple speculation or temporary popularity, and this should be smoothly guided towards growth.
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