German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ)
Digital Euro Association (DEA)

DIJ Web-Forum
Thursday, March 24, 2022

18:30h – 20:00h (Japan)
10:30h – 12:00h (Germany)

Digital Currencies in Asia: Lessons for Europe

About this EventCentral banks around the world have stepped in and intensified their efforts to conceptualize and design
their own digital currencies, i.e., central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), in particular, as a reaction to
the increased competitive dynamics by the cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. Asia has a particularimportance and critical leading efforts in this space with various Asian central banks assessing andexperimenting with CBDCs. For instance, China has launched pilot programs and trials of its digitalcurrency project e-CNY. Goals of the e-CNY include to provide a convenient, yet more efficient, resilientand secure retail payment system to increase financial inclusion and preserve monetary sovereignty.
Further, fair competition and interoperability should be promoted. As another example, the Bank ofJapan is in the proof of concept stage regarding their own digital currency. Additionally, the Japan Digital
Currency Forum as a consortium of around 70 Japanese firms, including the country's three largest
banks, is also working on a yen-based digital currency, tentatively called "DCJPY" for Japan's private
sector to complement the central bank's efforts.

In this joint webinar of the Digital Euro Association and the German Institute for Japanese Studies, we
focus on various efforts in Asia around digital money, stablecoins and CBDCs, and address thefollowing questions among others:
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●

What is happening in Asia around digital money, stablecoins and CBDCs?
e-CYN project in China: What are the implications for Asia as well as for Europe?
DCJPY project and CBDC in Japan: What are the implications for Asia as well as for Europe?
What can Europe learn from these projects?
How and why do the design principles of various CBDCs differ across Asian countries?
Which insights do Asian CBDC projects provide for the design of a digital euro?
What are the recent regulatory developments around digital money in Asia?
How is the competitive vs complementary landscape shaped in different Asian economies
between the CBDCs and private digital money?

During the webinar, you will also have the opportunity to ask questions to the speakers.

Speakers●●●●

Masaki Bessho (Head of FinTech Center, Payment and Settlement Systems Dept. of theBank of Japan)
Dr. Oriol Caudevilla (Co-Leader of the Financial Inclusion and CBDC Working Groups at theGlobal Impact FinTech (GIFT) Forum; Chairman of the Private Digital Euro Working Group at
the Digital Euro Association (DEA))
Richard Turrin (Best-selling author of "Cashless: China's Digital Currency Revolution"; Top
100 global FinTech influencer; Leading media commentator on China's "digital yuan" the eCNY; China payment, AI and tech; Consultant; Speaker)
Hiromi Yamaoka (Member of the Board, Future Corporation; Chairperson, Digital Currency
Forum in Japan; Former Director-General of the Markets Dept. and the Payment andSettlement Systems Dept. of the Bank of Japan)

Moderators●●Jonas Gross (Chairman, Digital Euro Association)
Dr. Markus Heckel (Senior Research Fellow, German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ))

Location and Date
Location: Online. Details for the live broadcast will be sent to you on the day of the event (no priorsoftware installation required)
Date: March 24, 2022
Time: 18h30-20h00 (JST) | 10h30–12h00 (CET)
Language: English

Agenda10:30 – Welcoming address (Markus Heckel, German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ))
10:35 – Presentations by Masaki Bessho, Richard Turrin, and Hiromi Yamaoka
11:15 – Panel discussion “Digital Currencies in Asia: Lessons for Europe” (Moderator: Jonas Gross,Digital Euro Association (DEA))
11:45 – Q&A
12:00 – End of webinar

Tickets and Registration
Please register at https://www.eventbrite.de/e/digital-currencies-in-asia-lessons-for-europe-

tickets-290266634317?aff=ebdsoporgprofile.