The Japanese government is moving to adjust cryptocurrency exchanges to be taxed separately at a 20% rate

According to Nikkei coverage, the Japanese government and the ruling party are working to adjust the taxation policy on cryptocurrency exchanges. They plan to levy income tax at a unified rate of 20% regardless of the transaction amount, making it the same as other financial products such as stocks and investment trusts. The move is aimed at reducing the tax burden on investors and activating the domestic trading market. The Japanese government plans to replace the current comprehensive taxation method with a separate taxation method, that is, cryptocurrency exchanges will no longer be combined with other income such as wages and career income, but will be taxed separately. The government aims to include this adjustment in the 2026 tax reform outline, which is expected to be finalized by the end of the year. At present, Japan has to adopt a comprehensive taxation method for cryptocurrency exchanges, that is, after being combined with other types of income, a tiered tax rate is applied according to the total income amount, with a maximum tax rate of 55%.
Japan's Financial Services Agency plans to submit amendments to the Financial Commodities Exchange Act to the Diet at its regular session in 2026, aimed at strengthening strict supervision of cryptocurrency transactions. The amendments will explicitly ban insider trading using undisclosed information and require cryptocurrency issuers to fulfill information disclosure obligations. Investment trusts containing cryptocurrency components are also expected to be lifted in Japan as tax reform progresses.