Quick answer: MUFG, Mizuho, and SMBC, Japan’s three largest banks, are working together on a jointly issued stablecoin meant to move real money between businesses rather than trade on an exchange. In November 2025 their proof-of-concept won support from Japan’s Financial Services Agency, and in June 2026 the three banks said they aim to run live commercial transactions during fiscal year 2026.
Part of our guide: Asset Tokenization.
Updated 07/17/2026. By Jake Claver. Educational content, not investment advice.
Most stablecoin headlines are about trading. This one is about plumbing. Japan’s megabanks are not chasing a retail token; they are testing whether a bank-issued, fully backed digital coin can settle payments between a company’s Japanese and overseas offices faster and with less friction than the correspondent-banking chain does today.
The story sits on two dated primary sources: a joint press release from November 7, 2025, and a follow-up from June 10, 2026. Both are linked below, and both are worth reading directly because the language is specific about structure and law.
What the three megabanks actually approved
On November 7, 2025, MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, and Progmat, Inc. announced that their joint stablecoin issuance and cross-border settlement proof-of-concept had been approved for support under the Financial Services Agency’s FinTech PoC Hub (MUFG/Mizuho/SMBC/Progmat joint PoC release). The FinTech PoC Hub is an FSA program that gives firms regulatory support to run controlled experiments.
The test case is concrete. The release says the goal is to verify whether the stablecoin can be used for cross-border payments between Mitsubishi Corporation’s Japanese and overseas locations. This is corporate treasury movement, not consumer spending.
How the coin is structured under Japanese law
The design is where the detail matters. According to the November release, the coin would be issued as “specified trust receivable rights as defined in Article 2, Paragraph 9 of the Payment Services Act,” under a trust agreement where the banks act as joint principal trustees and a trust bank acts as the agent trustee. In plain terms, customer funds sit in trust and the coin is a claim on that trust, not an unbacked token.
Japan wrote this path into law in 2023, when amendments to the Payment Services Act created a regulated category for fiat-backed stablecoins and allowed trust-type issuance with full backing in demand deposits. That legal backing is the difference between a bank settlement instrument and a speculative coin. In this structure, Progmat, Inc. provides the issuance infrastructure via Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation.
From proof-of-concept to live transactions
The June 10, 2026 follow-up moved the project forward. Mizuho, MUFG, and SMBC said they aim to conduct actual commercial transactions during fiscal year 2026 using a jointly issued stablecoin, and that they had signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a voluntary council to examine operational frameworks, governance, and related matters (Mizuho three-bank release, June 2026).
Two things stand out. First, the June release traces directly back to the project “selected last November as a supported project under the Financial Services Agency’s FinTech Proof-of-Concept Hub,” so this is the same effort maturing, not a separate program. Second, the council is being built to invite other financial institutions in later, which points at shared infrastructure rather than three competing coins.
Why banks issue a stablecoin instead of using existing rails
The honest answer is settlement speed and finality. Cross-border payments today hop through correspondent banks, cut-off times, and multiple ledgers. A fully backed, bank-issued token can carry value that settles on a shared ledger, which is the settlement work the title points to. The U.S. President’s Working Group described this same category of use in its stablecoin report, framing well-designed stablecoins as instruments that could support faster, cheaper payments when properly backed and supervised (Treasury / PWG stablecoin report).
What a bank consortium adds is trust in the issuer. When the coin is a trust claim on funds held at named megabanks under a specific statute, a corporate treasurer can treat it closer to bank money than to a crypto asset.
Where this fits in the global tokenization push
The Bank for International Settlements has argued that tokenized money and assets on shared ledgers could reshape the monetary system, with tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins as building blocks (BIS blueprint for the future monetary system). Japan’s megabank project is a real-world test of that thesis inside one of the world’s largest banking markets, run by incumbents rather than startups.
Why this matters
If three systemically important banks can settle corporate cross-border payments with a jointly issued, regulated stablecoin, it becomes a template other banking systems can study. The stakes are practical: faster settlement, fewer intermediaries, and clearer legal backing for the token itself. It is still a proof-of-concept moving toward live use, so the right posture is to watch what the FY2026 transactions actually demonstrate, not to assume the outcome.
Common questions
Who is issuing the MUFG, Mizuho, and SMBC stablecoin?
The three megabanks, MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, are the joint parties, with Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation and Progmat, Inc. involved in the trust and infrastructure roles described in the November 2025 release.
Is this stablecoin live yet?
Not as a general product. It began as a proof-of-concept approved for FSA FinTech PoC Hub support in November 2025, and in June 2026 the banks said they aim to run live commercial transactions during fiscal year 2026.
What is the stablecoin used for?
The initial test targets cross-border settlement between the Japanese and overseas locations of Mitsubishi Corporation, meaning corporate payments rather than retail or exchange trading.
How is the coin backed and regulated?
It is designed as specified trust receivable rights under Article 2, Paragraph 9 of Japan’s Payment Services Act, with customer funds held in trust, which places it in Japan’s regulated stablecoin framework created by 2023 amendments to that law.
Does this replace SWIFT or existing bank payments?
No. It is an experiment in settling certain payments on a shared ledger. Whether it complements or reduces reliance on existing correspondent rails depends on what the live transactions show.
This content is educational only. It is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Check primary sources and speak with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.
