Japan's Finance Minister, Saki Katayama, has declared 2026 as the "Digital Year Zero," aiming to enhance the adoption of digital assets through exchanges. Speaking at the Tokyo Stock Exchange's New Year opening ceremony, Katayama emphasized the importance of commodity and securities exchanges in promoting digital and blockchain assets. She highlighted the need for exchange infrastructure to drive public benefit from digital assets and noted the trend in the US of using ETFs to hedge against inflation. Katayama pledged full support for exchanges to develop an advanced digital asset trading environment in Japan.