If you search for STEPN in Japanese, you quickly see why this page exists. Japan has the biggest STEPN search demand in Asia, a long-running community of walkers and marathon runners, and a sportswear connection that goes back to the app’s very first brand collab. But buying Green Satoshi Token (GST) in Japan is not as simple as opening a yen exchange app. No Japanese exchange we checked lists GST, the tax rules are among the strictest in the region, and a big tax reform is coming but not here yet.
This guide covers STEPN and GST in Japan from a local angle: who regulates crypto, how STEPN income is taxed today, what the expected reform changes, how Japanese players actually reach GST, and where the community meets. For gameplay basics, start with our STEPN beginner guide.
Who regulates crypto and STEPN in Japan?
Japan was one of the first countries to put crypto exchanges under a formal licensing system. Any business that exchanges crypto for yen, or crypto for crypto, for Japanese customers must register with the Financial Services Agency (FSA). The industry also has a self-regulatory body, the Japan Virtual and Crypto Assets Exchange Association (JVCEA), which sets rules for its member exchanges, including how new tokens get approved for listing.
This two-layer system is the main reason GST is missing from Japanese order books. A token has to pass a review before a registered exchange can list it, and a micro-cap game token that trades for fractions of a cent, with thin liquidity and an uncapped supply, is not an obvious candidate. The big local names are bitFlyer, Coincheck, bitbank and SBI VC Trade. When we checked the public APIs, bitFlyer and bitbank showed no GST market, and bitbank had no GMT/JPY market either. Whether any Japanese exchange offers GMT is something we could not confirm, so treat any claim that you can buy GMT for yen locally with caution until you see it in your own app.
STEPN itself is not a Japanese company. Find Satoshi Lab (FSL) was founded in 2021 by Jerry Huang and Yawn Rong, both based in Australia. The STEPN app is a self-custody product: your in-app wallet uses a 12-word secret phrase, and FSL does not hold your coins for you. That matters in Japan, because the FSA regime is built around custodial exchanges. Once your coins leave a registered exchange and land in your own wallet, the protections that come with registration (segregated assets, exchange insurance, complaint handling) no longer apply. Our STEPN wallet guide explains how to secure that wallet properly.
The FIEA amendment: crypto becomes a financial product
Japan’s regulatory picture is in the middle of a big change. The Diet has passed an amendment to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA) that reclassifies crypto assets as financial products and brings in insider-trading rules for crypto. [source] The amendment takes effect within one year of promulgation. For a typical STEPN player, the day-to-day effect will mostly be on exchanges: tighter disclosure, tighter listing standards and stronger market-abuse rules. It does not, by itself, change how you are taxed today.
How STEPN income is taxed in Japan today
Today, crypto gains in Japan are usually classed as miscellaneous income (雑所得). That income is added to your other income and taxed at progressive rates. At the top, national and local tax together can reach about 55%. There is no special low rate for crypto, and under the current system you cannot carry crypto losses forward to later years the way stock investors can.
For STEPN players, the tricky part is that money can enter your life at several points, not just when you sell. You might earn GST by walking, swap GST for GMT or SOL, sell a sneaker on the marketplace for GMT, or finally cash out to yen. Each of these steps can be relevant for tax, and the yen value at the time of each transaction is the number you will most likely be asked about. We are not going to tell you which of those events is taxable in your case, because that depends on how your activity is classified. What we can say is that the people who get into trouble are usually the ones who kept no records at all.
確定申告 practicalities for STEPN players
If you need to file a 確定申告 (final tax return), the work is mostly about evidence. Here is what tends to help Japanese STEPN users when tax season comes around:
- Keep a simple spreadsheet with the date, token, amount and yen value for each purchase, swap, earning session you plan to report, and sale. The in-app history is useful, but it is not a tax report.
- Download the yearly transaction history from any registered exchange where you bought SOL, BNB or POL. These help prove your cost basis.
- Note your wallet address and the realm you play in. On-chain records are public, which makes them good evidence if you ever need to explain a transfer.
- Record gas fees and the 1% in-app swap fee. Whether they reduce your taxable gain is a question for your accountant, but you can only ask if you have the numbers.
- Price every entry in yen, not dollars. GST itself does not have a yen market, so most people convert via the dollar price at the time, and should be consistent about the source they use.
None of this is glamorous, but the tokens involved move fast. GST on Solana reached $8.51 in April 2022 and now trades near its all-time low. A careful record from the start is far easier than reconstructing a year of walking data later.
The expected 20% separate taxation
The change Japanese crypto users have wanted for years is a flat 20% tax, similar to how listed shares are taxed, with a three-year loss carry-forward. That reform is now on track, but it comes from the separate tax-reform process, not from the FIEA amendment, and it is expected to apply from January 2028. [source] Until then, the miscellaneous-income system above still applies.
There is an important catch for GST holders. Reports say the 20% treatment is planned for a list of approved tokens, around 105 of them, rather than every token you can hold. Whether GMT or GST would be on that list is not confirmed, and for GST it looks very unlikely given that no registered Japanese exchange lists it. In practice, this means a STEPN player could end up with two tax treatments: 20% for approved coins like the SOL they bought on a local exchange, and the old progressive rules for game tokens. Do not plan your trading around a lower rate that may never apply to the token you actually earn.
| Item | Japan today | Expected change |
|---|---|---|
| Regulator | FSA registration; JVCEA self-regulation | Crypto reclassified as financial products under the amended FIEA |
| Tax on gains | Miscellaneous income, up to ~55% | 20% separate taxation expected from January 2028 |
| Loss carry-forward | Not available | Three years, for approved tokens |
| GST on local exchanges | Not listed (bitFlyer, bitbank checked) | No sign of change |
| GMT on local exchanges | Not confirmed | Unknown |
How Japanese players actually get GST
Since GST has no yen market, almost every Japanese STEPN player uses the same three-step route: buy a base coin in yen, move it into STEPN, and swap. The base coin depends on which realm you want to play in: SOL for the Solana realm, BNB for BNB Chain, and POL for Polygon. GST is a separate token in each realm (sGST, bGST and pGST) and cannot be moved between them, so choose the realm first. Our realm guide explains the differences.
The route in practice:
- Buy the base coin on an FSA-registered exchange in yen, after full KYC. Check that your exchange actually supports withdrawals of that coin on its native network.
- Withdraw to the wallet address shown inside the STEPN app for that realm. Send a small test amount first. Wrong-network transfers are one of the most common and least recoverable mistakes.
- In the app, use the swap to turn part of the base coin into GST. The swap runs on FSL’s DOOAR exchange and charges 1%. Keep some of the base coin for gas, because moving tokens between your Spending and Wallet accounts is an on-chain transaction.
Some Japanese players also hold GMT and swap it to GST in-app, since GMT is used for the marketplace and milestone level-ups anyway. Our full guide to buying GST walks through each step and covers the international exchanges that still list GST spot pairs.
Start with yen and a registered exchange
Buy SOL, BNB or POL with a regulated, KYC-checked account, then swap to GST inside the STEPN app.
Regulated, long-running exchange · KYC-protected · card & bank deposits
Before you swap, glance at the local-currency price at the top of this page. GST moves in tiny increments, and the three realms can sit at very different prices, so a quick check stops you overpaying in a thin pool.
STEPN’s Japanese running scene
Japan’s STEPN community is different from most crypto communities: it is built around real races, not just Discord chat. FSL’s January update described STEPN BOOST Season 4, a marathon series that took STEPN runners to events in Hirakata, Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, the Nagoya Women’s Marathon and Fukui. [source] These events give the app a physical presence that few other move-to-earn projects ever had in Japan.
Alongside the official series, community-run STEPN JAM meetups take place in Tokyo, including a run in Yoyogi Park held around WebX 2025. [source] If you are new, these meetups are probably the friendliest way to learn the game in Japanese, ask about sneaker builds and meet people who have played since 2022.
The official Japanese Telegram group is t.me/STEPN_JP. Use it for announcements and help, but remember the basic rule from STEPN’s own support pages: official moderators never DM you, never ask for tokens and never ask for verification, 2FA or seed codes. [source] Japanese-language scam accounts copy the official names closely.
Why the Polygon realm caught on in Japan
In August 2025, the Polygon (POL) realm replaced the old Ethereum realm. Since then, FSL has pointed to “renewed community interest” in the Polygon realm, “particularly in Japan”. [source] We don’t have official numbers on how many Japanese players moved, so treat this as a trend, not a statistic. One practical point: pGST trades at a different price from sGST and bGST, and its main pool is on DOOAR. If you choose Polygon because your friends play there, check the pool depth before buying large amounts.
The ASICS connection
STEPN’s first major brand collaboration was with ASICS, the Japanese running brand, in April 2022. The STEPN x ASICS NFT sneakers sold through an IGO on Binance NFT, with more than 195,000 participants reported. [source] For many Japanese runners, that collab was their first contact with STEPN, and it helped give the app a sporting reputation rather than a purely speculative one. ASICS sneakers are listed as a collab type in the whitepaper, next to later partners such as adidas and Casio.
Risks specific to Japanese STEPN players
The biggest Japan-specific risk is the tax gap. If you earn GST, swap it and sell, you may face progressive rates of up to about 55% today, and the expected 20% rate may never cover GST. Under the current rules there is no loss carry-forward, so a gain in one year and a loss in the next do not simply cancel out. Some players respond by converting part of their earnings at regular intervals rather than waiting for a recovery that may not come; whether that suits you is your call, not ours. Read our GST earning strategies for realistic expectations; Japanese blogs about STEPN 稼げない exist for a reason.
The second risk is custody. Once coins leave an FSA-registered exchange, Japanese investor protections stop. Enable 2FA in the STEPN app (STEPN warns that resetting 2FA can take months), store your 12-word phrase offline, and never type it into a website.
The third is liquidity. GST pools are thin in every realm, and the token sits near its all-time low. Swapping large amounts can move the price against you, and there is no local yen market to fall back on. Check the live GST price and use the earning calculator before you buy sneakers, so your plan is based on today’s numbers, not 2022 memories.
Frequently asked questions
Can I buy GST on bitFlyer, Coincheck or bitbank?
No Japanese exchange we checked lists GST; bitFlyer and bitbank show no GST market. Most Japanese players buy SOL, BNB or POL in yen, send it to the STEPN wallet and swap to GST inside the app.
How is STEPN income taxed in Japan right now?
Crypto gains are currently treated as miscellaneous income (雑所得) and taxed at progressive rates of up to about 55% including local tax. How your own STEPN earnings are classified is a question for a tax accountant (税理士).
When does the 20% crypto tax start in Japan?
The 20% separate taxation is expected from January 2028 under the separate tax-reform track, and it is not in force yet. Reports say it will cover a list of approved tokens; whether GST would ever qualify is unconfirmed and looks unlikely.
Is there an official Japanese STEPN community?
Yes. STEPN has an official Japanese Telegram group (t.me/STEPN_JP). Always reach it from the official links page, because fake groups and fake moderators are common.
Which realm do Japanese STEPN players use?
All three realms are open to Japanese users. FSL has noted renewed interest in the Polygon realm, particularly in Japan, but your choice should depend on pool liquidity and gas costs. See our realm comparison.
