ABSTRACT
Cambodia’s inaugural issuance of its US dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) in October 2020 without official US government approval made headlines since future changes in currency specifications by Cambodia could compromise US monetary sovereignty. These concerns also apply to Japan as it pursues its own CBDC agenda. Since other countries might decide to issue a Japanese-yen CBDC in the future, the Japanese government should declare its pre-emptive opposition on the global stage, and ideally, the G20 should establish certain CBDC norms. Furthermore, from the perspective of monetary competition, Japan should not preclude a token-based CBDC from all options on the table.
