PwC Legal Japan

In recent years, the exploitation of digital assets using blockchain technology has been rapidly expanding. Among these blockchain-based digital assets, NFTs have the ‘unique’ feature, and have therefore enjoyed an increasingly strong market presence. Various types of NTFs, such as those related to digital arts, athletes, musicians and intellectual property (IP), have been put into practical use in Japan.

As outlined in our Newsletter in July 2021 (hereinafter, the 2021 Newsletter), the Financial Services Agency of Japan introduced new business structures to attract foreign investment management businesses, where they may enjoy exemption from registration as financial instruments business operators. The new exemption structures came into force on 22 November 2021. In a new issue of our Newsletter, which serves to update the 2021 Newsletter, we provide an overview and describe the key requirements of these exemptions.

An interview with PwC Legal Japan was published in Attorney's MAGAZINE and Attorney's MAGAZINE Online.

Michito Kitamura, Managing Partner of PwC Legal Japan, was interviewed in the lead story of the December 2021 issue of Asian Legal Business (Japan Edition), which focused on the topic ‘Japan Embraces ESG’, entitled ‘Doing well while doing good’.

In a contributed article in The Finance (15 November 2021) a website for practitioners in financial services, Tomohiro Kandori, a finance partner of PwC Legal Japan, explains key points for the practice of ship finance.

In the October issue of Ginko Jitsumu, a journal for practitioners in financial services published by Banking Education Co., Ltd., Makoto Hibi and Hidenori Shibata explain the revisions to Article 5-3 of the Japan Securities Dealers Association (JSDA) ‘Rules Concerning Solicitation for Investments and Management of Customers, Etc. by Association Members’, which pertains to sale by solicitation to aged customers. The article explains the key points of these revisions, which came into effect in August of this year, for reference in the field of sales of financial instruments.

The Telecommunications Business Act of Japan (the “Act) provides a regulatory framework for telecommunications businesses. Recently, the number of platform services and other telecommunication services provided by foreign entities has greatly increased in Japan. As the number of these services continues to grow, massive data breaches and communication failures have occurred in the services provided by some foreign entities. Through these cases, it became clear that the domestic users of such services were not being protected appropriately and that a level playing field for domestic and foreign telecommunication business providers was not secured in Japan. The amendment to the Act came into effect on 1 April 2021, aiming to protect domestic users and secure fair competition by enhancing the enforcement of the Act against foreign entities, and the Japanese regulatory authority, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (the “MIC”), published a set of guidelines (the “MIC Guidelines”)[1] which are aligned with the purpose of this amendment.

The Financial Services Agency of Japan will introduce new business structures to attract foreign investment management businesses, where they may enjoy exemption from registration as a financial instruments business operator. The new exemption structures will come into force by November 2021. In this Newsletter, we will provide an overview and describe the key requirements of these exemptions.