Technological advances have led to active debate on the issuance of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which involves national agendas and raises a variety of issues that cannot be resolved with technology alone. To get a better grasp of the difficulties involved and the issues Japan needs to tackle going forward, we spoke with Hiromi Yamaoka, who until a year ago served as Director-General of the Bank of Japan’s Payment and Settlement Systems Department, led many of the Bank’s discussions on CBDCs, and currently serves on the board of Future Corporation.