Over the past quarter-century, Japan has endured prolonged economic stagnation and deflation, with the Bank of Japan maintaining a zero interest rate policy. However, this year, the BOJ finally raised the policy rate to 25bps. Although a small increase in numbers, it signals a significant shift that global capital markets have strongly reacted to, once again recognizing Japan's economic presence.
 
Japan is currently facing a range of well-recognized challenges and opportunities, such as demographic shifts like population decline and aging, issues in the labor market, challenges in the capital markets like corporate governance, and emerging opportunities like Quantum Technology, which is gaining serious attention.
 
In this session, we aim to engage in a meta-cognitive discussion, not just about those identified issues and opportunities, but to uncover and recognize the deeper, fundamental triggers that Japan holds—much like how a "25bps" change rippled across the global landscape.

The GL1: Foundational Layer for Financial Networks session aims to explore the transformative potential of the Global Layer One (GL1) initiative, as introduced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This foundational digital infrastructure is designed to facilitate seamless cross-border transactions and integrate tokenized assets into global liquidity pools.

GL1 is not merely a technological advancement but a strategic move towards establishing a more interconnected and efficient global financial ecosystem. The initiative aims to address current limitations in digital asset platforms, which often face challenges related to regional boundaries and interoperability. By enabling diverse financial institutions to connect through a unified digital backbone, GL1 seeks to enhance market accessibility and operational efficiency across various asset classes.

The roundtable will bring together key central banks, regulators, international financial institutions, commercial banks and financial market infrastructures to:
1. Share latest developments on base infrastructure
2. Delve into use cases of shared ledger infrastructure in supporting financial transactions
3. Discuss standards and frameworks critical for settlement arrangements on shared ledger infrastructures

Project Guardian is an initiative spearheaded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), aimed at enhancing the efficiency and liquidity of financial markets through asset tokenization. The project seeks to unite policymakers and financial institutions to explore the economic potential and governance structures surrounding digital assets.

A significant aspect of Project Guardian is its focus on the Fixed Income workstream, where various stakeholders, including S&P Global Ratings and Moody's, DBS Bank, Standard Chartered are collaborating to develop frameworks and assessments for tokenized fixed-income products.

Key discussion points:
1. Latest developments in the asset tokenization for the Fixed Income asset class
2. Industry standards for various tokenized debt securities and the application of these standards to commercial use cases.
3. As increasing banks participate in the project, what roles do various stakeholders, including regulators, credit rating agencies like Moody's and S&P Global Ratings, and financial institutions, play in the success of Project Guardian?
4. How can these collaborations be structured to ensure effective governance and risk management?