Japan: PwC, NTT Digital to develop “digital public goods” using Web3 and blockchain

On August 16th, according to Coingeek, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced a new initiative as part of Japan's digital plan aimed at increasing mainstream adoption of digital public products by businesses and consumers. This initiative, called the "Demonstration Project for Building Digital Public Products Using Web 3.0 and Blockchain," aims to develop novel and practical use cases for blockchain technology in Japan. Under the leadership of METI, the initiative has attracted several industry leaders, including PwC, Rakuten, and NTT Digital, to participate in the pilot research.

The project is expected to be developed around four main themes, which METI says are broad enough to cover multiple sectors of the national economy. The project will work with NTT Digital and Leaf to establish a tokenized market of real-world assets (RWA), and has successfully won the award of relevant construction contracts. According to reports, the project will develop an RWA market for Leaf's Sake World, allowing consumers to purchase Japanese alcoholic beverages while also owning digital collectibles in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Rakuten will be responsible for developing an image copyright management platform using smart contracts, while PwC will lead content intellectual property (IP) protection based on Web3. The Hiroshima Web3 Association has reached an agreement with METI to use governance tokens on a distributed ledger to promote "regional revitalization." METI has abandoned its initial plan to share information with industry insiders, indicating that the plan may be canceled due to budget constraints. Other projects under this initiative have received six-figure funding from METI, with the RWA market receiving $307,000 in funding support.