Japan: a foreigner called Bitcoin

While in 2016 China reported 90% of the Bitcoin exchange worldwide, the outlook changed dramatically in 2017, after Beijing announced a ban on ICOs, and the closure of local exchanges due to new regulations.

Japan, on the other hand, would take a different direction, entering the cryptocurrency ecosystem with enthusiasm. Japan is responsible for almost half the volume of world trade in this sector, compared to 25 percent in the US.

The number has increased since the government approved a new law in early 2017, recognizing digital currencies as a legal form of payment.

This encouraged some large retailers to partner with local exchanges and start accepting the digital currency. There are already more than 4,500 physical stores that allow payments with Bitcoin, and the Nikkei (Japanese stock index) says that the number tends to increase dramatically.

In spite of this, and according to Mai Fujimoto, a kind of "crypto evangelist" who blogs and tweets about everything that has to do with Bitcoin, also known as "Miss Bitcoin" in Japan, still its use as a usual form of payment It is incipient. She herself confesses to pay barely 10 percent of her personal expenses in Bitcoin, using the currency usually to send money out of the country.

Fujimoto points out that "regulations build confidence in the currency, but people do not necessarily use it to replace cash". In Japan, Bitcoin is still considered an investment, not a daily coin.

The Japanese may take a while to widely adopt their daily use, and for that they may have to learn more about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

This has led to the emergence of a growing number of public seminars on ICO.Traders are not the only assistants, housewives, bitcoin newbies, and even professional matchmakers like Chieko Date participate in them. Chieko relates that she came to the course thanks to her son, who encouraged her to invest. Now it has 2 million yen (approximately US $ 18,800) diversified in four currencies.

Japan has not been free of problems. In February 2014, the first major Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, collapsed and went bankrupt after hackers attacked their accounts.

Due to actions like this, in part, regulators are responding with stricter rules, which require exchanges to maintain minimum capital reserves, separate client accounts, establish anti-money laundering regulations and "know your client" practices. (KYC).

Mike Verweyst has been in Japan for 25 years, owns the Two Dogs Taproom bar and, of course, accepts payments with Bitcoin. Mike says that, although gradually, the number of clients that use the "foreign" digital currency in their business is increasing.

It is not surprising then that the country that has set the pace with its cars and technological advances is once again ahead of the curve, and the rest of the world, again, follows it.