Japanese authorities will revise Japan's foreign exchange law to block Russia from evading financial sanctions imposed by US and EU through cryptocurrencies, Reuters reports, citing top government officials.
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As per Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the authorities have summited a revision of the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act to the current parliament session. However, no other details were provided. Saisuke Sakai, Senior Economist at Mizuho Research and Technologies, told the media that the revision basically extends banking requirements to cryptocurrency exchanges and oblige them to monitor whether their clients are Russian sanction targets.
Amid the geopolitical conflict in Ukraine, the Japanese government has frozen assets of more than 100 Russian officials, oligarchs, banks and other institutions. The country also prohibited exports of high-tech products to Russia.
Earlier in March, Japan called on local cryptocurrency exchanges to ban transactions involving addresses listed in OFAC's sanction list. The government promised regulatory burden for trading platforms, including fines for parties that would violate the sanctions.
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