日本银行拟推出“J币”对抗支付宝

Japanese banks’ plans to introduce a new digital currency ready for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as they respond to the threat from China’s Alibaba, which recently launched its mobile-phone payments service in the country.

日本几家银行计划在2020年东京奥运会(2020 Tokyo Olympics)之前推出一种新型数字货币，以应对中国的阿里巴巴(Alibaba)构成的威胁。阿里巴巴近来在日本推出了其移动手机支付服务。

A consortium of banks, led by Mizuho Financial Group and Japan Post Bank, has won support from the country’s central bank and financial regulator to launch the J Coin, an electronic currency to pay for goods and transfer money using smartphones.

一个由瑞穗金融集团(Mizuho Financial Group)和日本邮政银行(Japan Post Bank)牵头的银行财团，已获得日本央行(BoJ)和金融监管机构的支持，将推出电子货币“J币”(J Coin)，以便用智能手机为商品付款和转账。

The J Coin would be convertible into yen on a one-to-one basis, operating via a smartphone app and using QR codes to be scanned in stores. In return for providing the service for free, the banks would benefit by collecting more data on consumer spending patterns.

“J币”可等价兑换为日元，通过智能手机应用在店内扫描二维码使用。这项服务免费，作为回报，银行将可收集更多有关消费者支出模式的数据并从中受益。

“I think this electronic money is quite ahead of [credit and debit] cards, because when you use the cards the shops pay a certain fee,” Yasuhiro Sato, president and chief executive officer of Mizuho Financial Group, told the Financial Times.

瑞穗金融集团总裁兼首席执行官佐藤康博(Yasuhiro Sato)告诉英国《金融时报》：“我认为这种电子货币明显优于(信用及借记)卡，因为你使用卡时店家要支付一定费用。”

Meanwhile, MUFG has been developing a blockchain-based alternative called the MUFG coin. However, there have been recent discussions between the top banks about the possibility of MUFG joining the J Coin initiative.

与此同时，三菱日联金融集团(MUFG)正在开发一种基于区块链的货币“MUFG币”。不过，最近日本大银行之间讨论了三菱日联金融集团加入“J币”计划的可能性。

Several big Japanese banks have been lobbying their government and regulators about the danger of Alibaba’s Alipay service being launched recently in several cities including Tokyo, which they argue will allow data on Japanese consumers to be sent to China, according to a presentation seen by the FT.

根据英国《金融时报》看到的一份报告，几家日本大银行一直在就阿里巴巴近来在东京等日本多个城市推出支付宝(Alipay)服务构成的威胁游说日本政府和监管机构。它们辩称，该服务将致使有关日本消费者的数据被发送到中国。

The J Coin is designed to wean the Japanese off their heavy dependency on cash, which accounts for 70 per cent of all transactions by value. That is higher than any developed country, which have on average reduced cash utilisation to only 30 per cent.

“J币”旨在让日本人摆脱对现金的严重依赖，以交易额计，日本70%的交易用现金完成。这一比例高于其他任何一个发达国家，发达国家的现金使用率已平均降至30%。

“We like cash, because Japan is a very safety-conscious country,” said Mr Sato. “But cash is not so productive so we have to change the structure from cash to electronic money.”

“我们喜欢现金，因为日本非常重视安全，”佐藤康博表示，“但用现金效率不高，因此我们必须改变这种结构，从现金转向电子货币。”

The banks have privately estimated that the new system could add an extra ¥10bn to Japan’s economy by reducing the costs of handling cash and cutting settlement fees for retailers and consumers. They plan to unveil their J Coin plan in the next few days.

这些银行私下估计，这一新系统可能会通过降低处理现金的成本和零售商与消费者的结算费用，令日本经济产出增加100亿日元。它们计划在未来几天公布“J币”计划。