Japanese financial, judicial, and real estate authorities have issued joint guidance on the potential misuse of cryptocurrencies for money laundering. Through the guidance, the authorities stated, “Cryptocurrencies have the characteristic of being transferable instantly across borders and can be used as a means of payment in real estate transactions for money laundering purposes.” According to the joint guidance, real estate brokers must perform customer identification procedures in accordance with Japan's Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds and report suspicious transactions to the authorities. Furthermore, if there is evidence of criminal involvement, they must notify the police. This measure aims to apply existing banking-level Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards to cryptocurrency real estate transactions.
