By Leika Kihara

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Financial institution of Japan should be able to situation central financial institution digital currencies (CBDC) that coexist with varied different types of cash to supply the general public a secure digital cost system, its governor Haruhiko Kuroda mentioned on Tuesday.

The central financial institution will begin a pilot programme in April to check the usage of a digital yen, becoming a member of a rising variety of international locations in search of to meet up with front-runner China in launching a CBDC.

“Making certain the coexistence of CBDC with varied different types of cash … is one thing that we have to and can the truth is obtain sooner or later,” Kuroda mentioned in a speech delivered to a seminar on monetary expertise.

“There are numerous choices mendacity earlier than us when it comes to how and when to hold this out. However it’s our responsibility as a central financial institution to arrange ourselves to reply flexibly to any change in circumstances,” he mentioned.

The BOJ has mentioned the pilot programme, which can comply with two years of experiments it had been conducting, will assist or not it’s prepared in case the federal government decides to situation a digital yen.