Japan wants delays for crypto withdrawals. Will we introduce this as well?

The Japanese government is grappling with a falling yen, declining tax revenues and a rise in online scams. In order to combat this trend, they are introducing a series of measures to combat crypto and financial fraud. As Japan serves as a bellwether of what many Western countries will look like in a few years, with an aging population and fewer children, this could also be of great interest to Europe.

Demographics

In the highly entertaining book Alone in Japan, author Tom Feiling explains the impact of the demographic upheaval in the Asian nation on its inhabitants.

The book chronicles the rapid rise of single people, the overall demographic decline and the shifting social norms regarding relationships and loneliness in contemporary Japanese society.

In a society changing at an ever-accelerating pace, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government aims to provide particular support to the elderly population. One proposal involves a temporary block on certain types of withdrawals, covering both Japanese yen and cryptocurrency (the latter being highly popular as the yen’s value is falling again, driving up the cost of everyday purchases). After all, a larger elderly population inevitably leads to more online scams, as there are more potential victims.

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Japan is considering a measure that would temporarily prevent assets funded with Japanese yen from being immediately transferred to external wallets. This would apply to both direct deposits and cryptocurrency purchases.

The aim is to give crypto exchanges more time to identify suspicious transactions. This would make it easier to block attempts by cybercriminals to quickly siphon off stolen funds via hacked accounts.