There is a limited universe of listed preferred shares in Japan today. Upon listing, our preferred would be only the seventh in the market, and the first perpetual preferred. We view this as a meaningful contribution to the development of Japan's capital markets, but it is also why the path to listing is necessarily deliberate.
In the Japanese market, dividends on preferred shares are expected to be supported by sustainable cash flows generated from underlying operations. The listing review accordingly assesses dividend-paying capacity based on projected financial performance over a multi-year period, including scenarios across different market environments. Metaplanet already has a six-quarter track record in its Bitcoin Income Generation Business, and we believe it is important to continue demonstrating that the business can generate stable, recurring cash flows across both strong and weak Bitcoin market conditions. We are also continuing to articulate the scalability and long-term viability of our related operating businesses that support this cash flow profile.
A second consideration is dividend operations. Listed companies in Japan have historically paid dividends once or twice per year. The structure we are designing contemplates more frequent distributions, including monthly dividends. Implementing this requires careful work on record-date procedures, shareholder identification, dividend calculation, and recurring shareholder notice operations. We are working closely with our partners to build and modernize this infrastructure in a manner consistent with Japanese regulatory and market practice.
The process has taken longer than we initially anticipated, and we appreciate that this has created uncertainty. We are deliberate about this work because Japan today is one of the most yield-starved major capital markets in the world, and we believe a preferred equity product supported by credible operating cash flows, robust operational infrastructure, and a long-term growth strategy can meaningfully address that need. We are deeply committed to bringing this product to market, and to doing so in a form that earns the long-term trust of investors and market participants.
The first wave of Bitcoin-backed fixed income has shown the demand is real. The global opportunity is many multiples larger. Japan is a particularly compelling case. Japanese households hold roughly $7 trillion in cash and deposits earning nothing. Decades of zero-yield conditioning, a generation of conservative savers, and a regulatory framework that increasingly accommodates digital assets. The fit is hard to ignore.