The Japanese exchange trading markets are following in the footsteps of the Australain Securities Exchange and Nasdaq, which last week advanced plans to test the use of blockchain technology for post-trade settlement and proxy voting respectively.

In a statement, JPX says it will conduct PoC test in cooperation with IBM Japan to "evaluate the limits and possibilities of the technology in markets that have low transaction data volume".

The work will be based on the framework provided by the Hyperledger Project, a Linux Foundation-led initiative which has secured the backing of 30 banks and financial infrastructures to build a cross-industry open standard for distributed ledgers.

JPX is taking a cautious approach to the project, admitting: "There are issues to be resolved in the technology, and it will need to be continually verified and improved before actual application in financial business operations."