Daiwa Securities CEO pushes for Japan crypto ETF approval amidst slumping China profits

CEO of Daiwa Securities believes Japan should allow for crypto exchange-traded funds to enter the local market. Daiwa is one of the many companies pushing for Japan to approve crypto ETFs.

According to a Bloomberg report published on Dec. 24, Akihiko Ogino, Chief Executive Officer of the second largest brokerage in Japan, said in an interview that Japan should allow for crypto ETFs to “debut in the country.”

At the time of writing, Daiwa itself has an index-based exchange-traded fund in the Japan market, labeled Daiwa ETF Nikkei 225. Though, Ogino did not reveal any plans for Daiwa to start filing their own crypto-backed ETF.

Daiwa is not the only firm pushing for crypto ETFs. Last October, major Japanese financial firms such as Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui and Nomura securities, all backed a proposal that asked the Japanese government to prioritize Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) for crypto-backed ETFs.

However, many believe that it is still difficult for Japan to embrace crypto-backed ETFs due to its “regulatory constraints” as well as negative perception towards crypto because of past incidents such as Mt. Gox and DMM.

Additionally, Ogino predicted that Japan’s central bank seems set on tightening monetary policies even further as corporate profits begin to grow along with the early signs of inflations.

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Daiwa expects the Bank of Japan to increase the nation’s policy interest rate in January next year by 25 basis points, from 0.25% to 0.5%. The brokerage also expect the central bank to raise it again by the end of 2025 to 0.75%.

Based on the BOJ’s reduction of Japanese government debt purchases, Ogino concluded that “the volume of bonds available for the market will increase, which will likely stimulate trading.”

Daiwa is currently having a hard time gaining profit in its China market. Ogino said that it is “a bit questionable” whether the brokerage will be able to make profit in the new year ahead. Thus, the firm is exploring ways to turn profit in 2026 instead.

“The reality is that the pace of the Chinese market over the past year hasn’t been as good as expected,” adds Ogino.

According to official data, the combined revenue of securities firms in China fell by 9% to 203.3 billion yuan ($27.9 billion) in the first half compared to the previous year.

In addition, company stated that it will be raising employee wages in April 2025 to “around 5% or perhaps more.” The CEO said that the firm wants to “appropriately grow and train” its existing staff to trade successfully in yen rates, without having to add new recruits.

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