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Japan Decides Against Bitcoin Regulation, For Now

Japanese Diet upper house
Japan’s ruling political party has announced that it is against regulating bitcoin for the time being.The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) made the statement as an interim measure, but the final decision will be made after hearing “more opinions” on the matter, said LDP lawmaker Takuya Hirai.“Basically, we concluded that we will, for now, avoid a move towards legal regulation,” Hirai told Reuters.Following the highly publicised collapse of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, Japanese authorities found themselves in the world’s media spotlight.The exchange was incorporated in Japan and several politicians were quick to call for bitcoin regulation. There was no shortage of opposition, however.Senior Finance Minister Jiro Aichi called for an international effort on bitcoin regulation in late February. Japan’s regulators argued that international collaboration is necessary due to the global nature of digital currencies, which easily transcend various jurisdictions and can be used to exploit loopholes in international law.The Liberal Democratic Party launched an investigative committee into bitcoin in March, issuing a statement saying that bitcoin is not a currency, but stressing that the digital currency is still taxable. Japan started looking into ways of taxing bitcoin in the weeks following the Mt. Gox collapse.So far none of the efforts have resulted in new legislation and judging by Hirai’s latest statement, Japan is not in a rush to regulate bitcoin.AsiaJapanregulation
Original author: Nermin Hajdarbegovic