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Advisory Network

Morishita Tetsuo

森下哲朗

Professor of Law, Sophia University

JapanAcademic

About

Morishita Tetsuo graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo in 1989 and holds a master's degree in law from the same university. He worked at Sumitomo Bank from 1989 to 1999. He then joined the Faculty of Law at Sophia University.

He is a professor at Sophia University's Faculty of Law and its law school. His research covers international transaction law, financial law and negotiation. He has also served as Sophia's vice-president for globalisation.

He chairs working groups of the FSA's Financial System Council on payments and crypto assets. The payments working group's report of 22 January 2025 covered crypto-asset exchanges and stablecoins. It dealt with preventing customer assets from leaving Japan when an exchange fails, more flexible management of reserves backing trust-type stablecoins, and stablecoin issuance by deposit-taking institutions. The crypto asset working group met from July 2025. Its report of 10 December 2025 recommended moving crypto assets out of the Payment Services Act and regulating them under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. It also recommended insider-trading rules for crypto assets. The report was then passed to the council's general meeting.

Policy engagement

Chaired the FSA Financial System Council working group on the crypto asset system, whose December 2025 report recommended moving crypto assets from the Payment Services Act into the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.

Source: FSA, 10 Dec 2025: crypto asset system working group report

Key actions

  1. The FSA crypto asset working group he chairs published its report recommending that crypto assets be regulated under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.

    Source

  2. Chaired the first meeting of the Financial System Council's working group on the crypto asset system.

    Source

  3. The FSA payments working group he chairs published its report, including measures on crypto exchanges and stablecoins.

    Source

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