AURAM Confirms, Through METI's Grey Zone Resolution System, How Perfection Requirements Apply to Transferring Ownership of Gold Bullion Without Moving It from the Vault — Opens Applications for an Invitation-Only Pilot for Corporations and Financial Institutions Holding or Using Physical Assets

The responses from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have been published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Ahead of the launch of an invitation-only service within this year, we are recruiting participating companies in three categories: corporations that hold gold bullion for asset preservation, corporations that use gold bullion in their business, and financial institutions. A further inquiry extending the same structure to co-ownership interests (fractional ownership) is also in preparation.

AURAM Inc. (head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Kazuhiro Fukuda) is a startup building an on-chain financial platform that handles the sale, collateralization and settlement of physical assets in an integrated manner, with a "movable asset digital ledger" at its core that records the ownership and collateral status of physical assets such as gold ingots on a blockchain without moving the physical asset out of the vault, so that third parties can verify them independently. We have now received, dated September 9, 2026, the responses of the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry to the inquiry we submitted on August 10, 2026 to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry under the Grey Zone Resolution System (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) based on the Act on Strengthening Industrial Competitiveness, concerning "the perfection requirement (requirements for asserting against third parties) for a transfer of ownership of a gold ingot carried out without moving it from the vault"; on the same day, the content of the responses was published on the website of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Together with this, ahead of the launch of an invitation-only service within this year, we are today opening applications to participate in an operational pilot for corporations and financial institutions engaged in holding or using physical assets. The asset covered in the first phase is gold bullion.

■ Key Points of This Release

Background: There Was No Mechanism to Show Third Parties the "Rights" to Securely Stored Movable Property

Real property has a registration system, which allows ownership and security interests to be asserted against third parties. Movable property such as a gold ingot, by contrast, has no general registration system of the kind available for real property, and "delivery" is required in order to assert ownership against third parties. A gold ingot is inherently well suited both to trading on the market and to use as collateral; yet when it is pledged as collateral while remaining in the holder's own hands, the party accepting it finds it difficult to prevent double assignment or unauthorized disposal, and it has therefore been difficult for financial institutions to treat it as movable-property collateral. As a result, many gold ingots are stored in vaults for safety, and their value goes unused for as long as they are held. If there were a mechanism to show third parties "when, and to whom, the asset came to belong" while it remains stored in a vault, safety and utilization could go together. Our movable asset digital ledger is intended to provide that mechanism.

The 2026 Basic Policy (Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2026) explicitly refers to "promoting on-chain finance," and the tokenization of physical assets (RWA) is expanding worldwide. However, how records on a blockchain are to be connected to the transfer of rights under Japanese law had not, until now, been the subject of clear public confirmation.

Content of the Responses

We submitted an inquiry asking, as the matter to be confirmed, whether it is possible to interpret that the perfection requirement under Article 178 of the Civil Code is satisfied by virtue of Article 184 of the Civil Code (transfer of possession by instruction), with respect to a structure in which a gold ingot identified by serial number or otherwise remains stored in the vault of a specialist operator holding warehousing registration, while the seller instructs the custodian through our system to hold possession for the buyer from that point onward, and the buyer consents to this, thereby satisfying the perfection requirement for the transfer of ownership.

In response, we received from the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, dated September 9, 2026 (Ministry of Justice Minsei No. 80; 20260810 Sei No. 4), a response stating that, where the facts set out in this inquiry are taken as the premise and where A (the seller) and B (the buyer) in the response document know, or are in a position to know, the information identifying the warehouse operator, it is interpreted that it is acceptable to consider that the perfection requirement under Article 178 of the Civil Code is satisfied by transfer of possession by instruction. In the publication by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the matter is listed under the project name "Gold Ingot Sale and Purchase Service Using Blockchain" (date of application: August 10, 2026 (Reiwa 8); date of response: September 9, 2026 (Reiwa 8); department in charge: Mineral Resources Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau).

Our letter of inquiry (published version) is also made public on the same page.

With these responses, the legal reasoning has been clarified for asserting against third parties, without moving the physical asset, the record in our movable asset digital ledger of "when, and to whom, the asset came to belong." This forms a practical foundation for the financial utilization of physical assets, such as lending secured by gold bullion. Note that these responses represent the current view on the premise of the facts presented by the party making the inquiry, and do not bind judicial determinations.

For the reasoning behind transfer of possession by instruction, please also see our explanatory article (in Japanese).

Invitation-Only Operational Pilot: Applications from Participating Companies

Ahead of the launch of an invitation-only service within this year, we are from today recruiting companies to participate in an operational pilot that will verify the purchase, holding and ledger management of physical assets with a small number of corporations in an actual commercial flow. The asset covered in the first phase is gold bullion (gold ingots).

Eligibility: Corporations in Japan that fall under any of the following. (1) Corporations considering holding gold bullion for asset preservation purposes, such as preparing for inflation and exchange-rate fluctuations or business continuity planning; (2) corporations that use gold bullion in their business, including bullion dealers and manufacturers in fields such as jewelry and electronic materials; (3) financial institutions and money lenders interested in piloting credit extension secured by gold bullion.

Scale and process: We envisage approximately ten companies in the first phase. After you contact us through the inquiry form on our website, we will review three points — (1) the corporation's actual existence and clearance of anti-social forces screening, (2) the genuine business need behind the purpose of holding (speculative or resale purposes are out of scope), and (3) willingness to cooperate with the operational pilot — and will then get in touch in sequence. The gold ingots handled in the pilot are designed to be new bars manufactured by a refiner accredited under LBMA (London Bullion Market Association) Good Delivery, procured by HANDS ON Inc. (a bullion dealer) — whose Representative Director is also our own Representative, Fukuda — and purchased by the participating company while they remain stored in the vault. The physical bars do not move out of the vault at any point before or after the purchase. The party to the sale is HANDS ON Inc., and AURAM participates as the provider of the movable asset digital ledger.

What it means for a corporation to hold gold bullion in physical form: that it serves as a hedge against inflation and exchange-rate fluctuations as a physical asset; that it can be treated as an asset carried on the balance sheet; that holding it without moving the physical bars avoids the risks of theft and transport; and that, on the foundation of these responses, a path opens toward using it as collateral in the future. On corporate practice, please refer to our explanatory articles (in Japanese) supervised by a certified public accountant and tax accountant.

Looking Ahead

As shared industry infrastructure: The structure confirmed on this occasion reflects reasoning common to every operator that transacts in movable property stored in a vault without moving it. We will work on providing the movable asset digital ledger to bullion dealers and storage operators that wish to use it under the same structure, and will advance development with a view to expanding coverage to physical assets beyond gold bullion.

Connecting to settlement and finance: We welcome collaboration with operators and financial institutions working on the implementation of on-chain finance, including connection to settlement by stablecoins and tokenized deposits, and lending secured by physical assets.

Extension to co-ownership interests: Because the price of a single gold ingot is high, smaller-scale demand currently finds it hard to access holdings based on ownership. We are preparing a further inquiry extending the same structure as this one to co-ownership interests (fractional ownership) in a specific gold ingot (Article 249 of the Civil Code).

We will continue our preparations toward the launch of the invitation-only service within this year.

The Path So Far: From Technical Proof-of-Concept to Legal Confirmation

These responses lie on the extension of a series of technical proofs-of-concept that we have been publishing since June 2026.

First release (June 29, 2026): Technical proof-of-concept of a sale that does not move the physical asset.

We demonstrated on a testnet the flow of a sale that transfers ownership of a gold ingot without moving it from the vault. This flow — recording the seller's instruction and the buyer's consent in the ledger and rewriting the owner information — is precisely the structure for which the reasoning on the perfection requirement has now been confirmed under the Grey Zone Resolution System.
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000001.000180175.html

Second release (July 6, 2026): Technical proof-of-concept of on-chain lending collateralized by ownership.

Using the ownership recorded in the first release as collateral, we demonstrated a lending flow in which the transfer of possession of the collateral and the execution of the loan are carried out as a single unit. For secured finance to work, it is a prerequisite that the rights in the collateral can be asserted against third parties. These responses give legal reasoning to that prerequisite.
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000002.000180175.html

Third release (August 17, 2026): Verification of controls over AI agents in settlement operations.

For the settlement layer that follows assets and collateral, we published the design principles for the scope to be entrusted to AI agents and the scope requiring human judgment.
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000003.000180175.html

The technology is proven, the legal reasoning is confirmed; what remains is commercialization.

About AURAM Inc.

Corporate philosophy: "Creating trust. Toward a world where dormant physical assets can be put to work without letting go of them."

The solid value of physical assets such as gold tends to lie dormant inside a vault, in exchange for "safety." Without moving the physical asset out of the vault, AURAM records its ownership and collateral status in a tamper-resistant movable asset digital ledger, and builds a foundation of trust on which authorized third parties, such as financial institutions, can verify authenticity when needed, while the holder's privacy is protected. The trust once built stays with the object, and dormant physical assets become assets that can be traded with confidence and used as collateral without being let go. We provide corporations with a hedge against inflation and exchange-rate fluctuations together with liquidity, and individuals with steady asset formation.

Company name	AURAM Inc. (株式会社アウラム)
Address	Nihonbashi Royal Plaza 706, 17-1 Nihonbashi Kabutocho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-0026, Japan
Representative	Kazuhiro Fukuda, Representative Director
Founded	February 25, 2026
Capital	5,000,000 yen
Business	Operation of a physical asset trading platform; a service that records the ownership of and security interests in movable property using blockchain (movable asset digital ledger); and operation of media on asset management
URL	https://www.auram.co.jp/

Contact for This Release

AURAM Inc., Public Relations
URL: https://www.auram.co.jp/contact.html

Original Press Release (PR TIMES)