Japan’s three megabanks have pushed a jointly issued yen stablecoin through a full cross border payment cycle, moving money between Mitsubishi Corporation’s offices at home and abroad. It was a proof of concept, not a launch. But it tested the model the banks want to take live: one coin, backed by deposits and issued by several banks together, rather than a separate token from each.
MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation published the results on October 16. The trial ran from July 17 to July 23, 2026, under the Financial Services Agency’s Payment Innovation Project, which took it on in November 2025.
The legal structure is worth a closer look. The coin was issued as a specified trust beneficiary right under Article 2, Paragraph 9 of the Payment Services Act. The three banks acted as joint settlors, with Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking as trustee holding the backing assets. SMBC provided the blockchain platform, built with TIS, which also integrated the issuance platform, business processes and wallets.
Mitsubishi Corporation was the test case. The banks say they checked the whole chain of issuance, transfer and redemption on its payments between Japan and overseas sites. They also looked at how a multibank issuer would run day to day, how money laundering and terrorist financing checks would work across use cases, and what a trustee owes when several banks share issuance.
The participants say the system proved safe and reliable and that joint issuance is workable. No volumes or values were disclosed.
The design, which the banks say could still change, has four parts. The coin is denominated in yen and issued jointly to reach as many users as possible. A trust structure means there is no cap on circulation. Trust assets sit as bank deposits. And only users whose identity a bank has verified can hold it.
This is part of a bigger push. On June 10, 2026, the three banks said they aim to start real transactions in the shared stablecoin within fiscal 2026 and to set up a council to work on it together. They are also working on a trial of trading traditional assets and transferring rights with blockchain and digital money, announced in February 2026 with Nomura Securities and Daiwa Securities, and a trade payments trial using TradeWaltz, announced in September 2026.
Next, the banks plan to work through what still needs solving before practical use, alongside authorities, financial institutions, companies and tech providers in Japan and abroad. User protection, money laundering controls, cybersecurity and system stability top their list. They also want to go beyond payments into onchain finance, including onchain deposits.
Herald View
The megabanks chose to share one coin instead of fighting over three. That gives corporate treasurers a single instrument, keeps the float inside the banking system and leaves nonbank issuers waiting for a split that won’t come. If it goes live on time, every concentrated banking market will be studying this template.
