Japan's Finance Minister designates 2026 as the "Digital First Year," supporting the promotion of digital assets through exchanges

PANews, January 5th – According to CoinPost, Saki Katayama, Japan's Minister of Finance and Financial Services, stated at the Tokyo Stock Exchange's New Year opening ceremony that 2026 will be positioned as the "Digital First Year," emphasizing the key role of commodity and securities exchanges in promoting the adoption of digital assets and blockchain assets. She pointed out that in order for citizens to truly benefit from digital assets, their adoption should be promoted based on exchange infrastructure. At the same time, she mentioned the trend in the United States of using ETFs as an inflation hedge, suggesting that Japan should also actively promote similar developments, and expressed her full support as the financial supervisory minister for exchanges to build an advanced digital asset trading environment.