Japan is increasingly treating the need for yen stablecoins and regulatory preparation as a key task as it braces for an era when AI agents autonomously make payments on behalf of people. In the industry, calls are growing that as AI payment infrastructure spreads, yen-based digital currencies must secure competitiveness in a stablecoin market centred on the dollar.

On July 13 local time, blockchain media outlet CoinPost reported that at Japan’s WebX 2026 event, Takafumi Horie (호리에 다카후미) and JPYC CEO Noritaka Okabe (오카베 노리타카) held a discussion on payment infrastructure in the AI era and the role of yen stablecoins.

The two sides said it is likely that an environment in which AI autonomously carries out payments will become reality, and assessed that it is urgent to put in place payment methods and systems to support it.

Horie explained that the issue of granting payment authority to AI agents is a matter of security design rather than technology. He said AI could be given payment limits and authority in the same way companies set budget limits for each employee. He said combining electronic signatures and smart contracts could reduce the risk of improper use while safely leaving transaction records on a blockchain.

Okabe said AI-based payments are already becoming reality in some industries. He introduced that stablecoins such as JPYC have so far been used mainly for digital assets and decentralised finance (DeFi), but in sectors such as travel, adoption of payments using AI agents is being considered.

He said a structure is fully possible in which foreign tourists pay with dollar-based stablecoins such as USDC and Japanese businesses receive settlement in the form of yen-based JPYC.

The two sides stressed that in the AI era, the choice of currency will be an important source of competitiveness. Horie said the essence of currency is ultimately credit. He said the greater the circulation and liquidity of a currency, the lower its price volatility, and AI, like people, is likely to prefer stable payment methods.

He said bitcoin still has high price volatility, making it burdensome to use as a long-term payment method, while the dollar and the yen are relatively stable. Okabe said yen stablecoins are essential from the perspective of accounting and tax management in an environment where Japanese companies and individuals use AI agents.

He added that because AI is not bound by borders, it may choose dollar-based stablecoins in countries where regulation is favourable. He said if Japan establishes an AI-friendly regulatory system, yen stablecoins could be used by AI services worldwide.

Taxation and regulation were also cited as key variables. Horie said Japan’s crypto taxation system reaches up to 55 percent and is complex, increasing the burden on users.

He said taxation occurs both at the stage of acquiring tokens and at the stage of using them for actual payments, while stablecoins can be treated similarly to fiat currency, offering tax advantages.

Okabe said a legal framework to govern situations in which AI agents autonomously sign contracts or carry out payments has not yet been put in place. He said Japan is currently at the stage of discussing related systems and legal revisions, and the political world is also reviewing responses.

Horie said because AI payments are a new industry, there is relatively little pushback from existing stakeholders, and institutional preparation could proceed relatively quickly.

The possibility of changes in a cash-centred society was also mentioned. Horie said the current cash- and ATM-centred payment culture is largely maintained by inertia, and that if the use of high-denomination bills declines, non-cash payments could spread more quickly.

He cited China’s spread of QR code payments and said stablecoins could also be used in the future for government subsidies and the payment of corporate salaries.

There was also an assessment that the traditional financial sector is actively responding to the stablecoin market. Okabe said banks and card companies are not viewing stablecoins only as a threat and are expanding related research and investment.

He added that Visa and Mastercard have filed many stablecoin-related patents and Stripe is also pursuing related business. In Japan, JCB and Mitsui Sumitomo Card are conducting a pilot project for touch payments based on the My Number card, and the pace of financial-sector responses is also accelerating.

Stablecoin transaction volumes are also growing quickly. Okabe introduced an analysis that global stablecoin transaction volumes now reach about 2 trillion won a day, but actual retail payments account for less than 1 percent of the total, with most taken up by automated transactions using AI.

Horie, however, said the current transaction volume is still not large enough, and assessed that there is still room for yen stablecoins to expand market share.

The discussion shows that competitiveness in the AI payments era depends not on AI technology alone, but on which currency is chosen and how quickly systems to support it are put in place.

The industry sees dollar-based stablecoins as having pre-empted the market, but considers that yen stablecoins can also play a sufficient role given accounting and tax processing in Japan and corporate demand. Whether yen stablecoins can secure a presence in the actual payments market will likely hinge on regulatory preparation and the speed of corporate adoption.