Financial Services Agency (FSA)

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This entry sits under financial-regulators INDEX. Read it against Bank of Japan (BoJ) for the central-bank counterpart, and Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan (DIC) / Non-life Insurance Policyholders Protection Corporation of Japan / Life Insurance Policyholders Protection Corporation for the safety-net peers it supervises.

TL;DR

A Cabinet Office external bureau that unifies supervision of Japan’s banking, insurance, securities, and crypto-asset industries. 2000-07-01: separated from the Ministry of Finance (the old MoF) as the Financial Supervisory Agency → became the Financial Services Agency in 2000-07 . Prehistory: the 1998 MoF entertainment-bribery scandal → loss of trust in banking administration → the policy of separating “bank supervision” from “monetary policy.” Strategy Bureau (the former Strategy and Policy Management Bureau) + Supervision Bureau + Inspection Bureau (since abolished and integrated) + Planning and Markets Bureau (after the reorganization of the enforcement structure, currently a Strategy and Policy Management Bureau + Planning and Markets Bureau + Supervision Bureau + Vice Minister for Policy Coordination structure). The Commissioner is the top of the administrative staff, above whom the Minister for Financial Services (Minister of State for Special Missions of the Cabinet Office) provides political direction. Over the past 10 years the supervisory remit has expanded significantly, covering virtual-currency / crypto-asset regulation (the 2017 revised Payment Services Act), the Corporate Governance Code (2014), the Stewardship Code (2014), sustainability disclosure (2022 onward), and more.

1. Legal basis / establishment

Legal name: Financial Services Agency English name: Financial Services Agency (FSA) Legal basis: Act for Establishment of the Financial Services Agency (平成 10 年 Act 第 130 号) + Act for Establishment of the Cabinet Office Established: 2000-07-01 (Financial Supervisory Agency → reorganized into the Financial Services Agency) Status: external bureau of the Cabinet Office Headquarters: Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 3-2-1 Supervising minister: Minister for Financial Services (Minister of State for Special Missions of the Cabinet Office, directly under the Prime Minister) Commissioner: top of the administrative staff

History

~1998    the MoF Banking Bureau / Securities Bureau / International Finance Bureau exercised unified supervision
1998      MoF entertainment-bribery scandal → loss of trust in banking administration
1998-06   Financial Supervisory Agency established (supervisory function separated from the MoF)
2000-07   **merged with the Financial Reconstruction Commission → Financial Services Agency inaugurated**
2001-01   central-government reorganization → re-established as an external bureau of the Cabinet Office
2017-04   virtual-currency exchange registration system began
2018-04   the Planning and Markets Bureau + Supervision Bureau structure took hold

Key chronology

Date	Event
1998-03	MoF entertainment-bribery scandal → Diet testimony / loss of trust in banking administration
1998-06	Financial Supervisory Agency inaugurated
1998-10	Financial Reconstruction Commission inaugurated (responsible for resolving bank failures)
2000-07	Financial Supervisory Agency + secretariat of the Financial Reconstruction Commission → Financial Services Agency inaugurated
2003-05	[[megabanks/resona-hd
2006-06	Financial Instruments and Exchange Act enacted (a full revision of the Securities and Exchange Act)
2007-09	Financial Instruments and Exchange Act came into force
2014-06	Stewardship Code published
2014-06	Corporate Governance Code published (jointly with the TSE)
2017-04	Revised Payment Services Act came into force → virtual-currency (crypto-asset) exchange registration system
2018-01	Coincheck leak incident → strengthening of crypto-asset regulation
2020	COVID-response financial measures / moratorium / strengthening of electronic-payment intermediary business
2022-04	Financial Instruments and Exchange Act amended → strengthening of sustainability disclosure
2023-04	Digital securities (ST) regulation developed

2. Organizational structure (current)

Minister for Financial Services (Minister of State for Special Missions of the Cabinet Office, political direction)
   │
FSA Commissioner (top of the administrative staff)
   ├── Vice Minister for International Affairs (international / global operations)
   ├── Vice Minister for Policy Coordination
   │
   ├── [[financial-regulators/fsa-strategy-bureau|総合政策局（戦略局）]] ── overall supervision / cross-cutting policy
   ├── [[financial-regulators/fsa-planning-coordination-bureau|企画市場局]] ── institutional design / market regulation
   ├── [[financial-regulators/fsa-supervision-bureau|監督局]] ── supervision of individual operators (banking / insurance / securities)
   ├── [[financial-regulators/fsa-inspection-bureau|検査局]] (former structure; now integrated into the Supervision Bureau / Strategy and Policy Management Bureau)
   │
   └── Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC, an Article 3  commission)
            inspection / investigation / referral of the securities market

The Inspection Bureau was integrated functionally into the Supervision Bureau / Strategy and Policy Management Bureau in the 2018-07 organizational reform. The current structure is one of “integrated inspection-and-supervision operation.”

Main councils / deliberative bodies

Financial System Council: policy advisory body, the hub for debating institutional reforms
Council for Strengthening the Financial Function: reviews public-fund injection cases
Certified Public Accountants and Auditing Oversight Board: oversight of accountants
Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC): market surveillance

3. Entities supervised

Sector	Governing law	Main entities
Banking	Banking Act	[[megabanks/mufg-bank
Securities	Financial Instruments and Exchange Act	[[securities-firms/nomura-hd
Insurance	Insurance Business Act	[[non-life-insurers/tokio-marine-hd
Asset management	Financial Instruments and Exchange Act	investment-trust / investment-advisory operators
Funds-transfer business	Payment Services Act	[[payment-firms/paypay
Crypto-asset business	revised Payment Services Act (2017)	[[payment-firms/bitflyer
Money-lending business	Money Lending Business Act	[[consumer-finance/acom

Corporate Governance Code (2014 onward)

Drafted jointly with JPX
In the Prime market, the comply-or-explain principle applies
Codifies the independence and diversity of the board, the nomination / remuneration committees, etc.
The 2018 / 2021 revisions strengthened outside directors, the ratio of independent outside directors, sustainability, etc.

Stewardship Code (2014 onward)

Principles for institutional investors’ voting and engagement
The 2017 / 2020 revisions extended it to ESG / sustainability / passive funds

Crypto-asset regulation (2017 onward)

Crypto-asset exchange registration system under the revised Payment Services Act
Regulation strengthened after the 2018 Coincheck leak incident
The 2019 revision changed the term from “virtual currency” to “crypto-asset”
Stablecoin regulation (the 2022 revised Payment Services Act)

Sustainability disclosure (2022 onward)

Mandatory disclosure of sustainability information in securities reports
Linked to the ISSB / SSBJ standards
2024 formal publication of the SSBJ standards

Sources

Wikipedia: Financial Services Agency (https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/金融庁, extracted 2026-05-25)
FSA official site (https://www.fsa.go.jp/, accessed 2026-05-25)
FSA organization chart (https://www.fsa.go.jp/common/about/organization/index.html, accessed 2026-05-25)
Act for Establishment of the Financial Services Agency (平成 10 年 Act 第 130 号)
Act for Establishment of the Cabinet Office (平成 11 年 Act 第 89 号)

[!info] Verification status