What does Japan know that the rest of Asia doesn\'t? While China is busy banning exchanges and ICOs, and South Korea moves towards regulation, Japan has taken the opposite tack. Although it might not have such a big market share, the Japanese government have been much more positive about crypto, adopting bitcoin as legal tender in April last year. Many of its citizens use the digital currency and some have it as their primary store of value.

The country even has its own (self-proclaimed) Miss Bitcoin, 32-year-old Mai Fujimoto, who represents the social media\'s attitude in Japan. In a January 7th interview with Agence-France Presse, Fujimoto said that she converts all her disposable income and savings into cryptocurrency, rather than putting them in a bank as fiat currency.

Japan has been the beneficiary of the regulatory moves in China, as many investors and businesses have moved across the Sea of Japan to relocate on the island. It also pioneered the adoption of Bitcoin as a payment method, with many Japanese businesses beginning to integrate the new technologies. Some companies are even paying salaries in part in bitcoin as government approval conveys some sense of security.

For Japanese investors, the change also comes at a good time, with their central bank offering ultra-low interest rates as it attempts to battle deflation.