Ripple’s dollar stablecoin hits a wall in Japan, one of XRP’s friendliest markets, as megabanks earn most of the trust

Japan has long been one of Ripple's most fertile markets. SBI's investment in Ripple dates to 2016, SBI Remit launched Japan's first XRP-enabled international remittance flow in 2021, and SBI VC Trade counts XRP among its most popular assets. When Ripple and SBI announced in August 2025 that SBI VC Trade intended to distribute RLUSD in Japan, the move read as a natural extension of an already deep local partnership. A recent survey of 518 investment professionals in Japan, conducted by Nomura and Laser Digital between December 2025 and January 2026 and released Apr. 16, found that 63% of respondents identified potential uses for stablecoins, spanning treasury management, cross-border payments, crypto investing, and tokenized securities. Across JPY, USD, and EUR denominations, the stablecoins that drew the highest institutional trust were those issued by major financial institutions. Japan may be Ripple's friendliest proving ground and precisely where the limits of crypto-branded stablecoins become visible. A Nomura and Laser Digital survey of 518 Japanese investment professionals found major financial institution-issued stablecoins ranked highest in trust, with crypto-native issuers ranking lowest. Why Japan was supposed to be different Ripple's position in Japan goes beyond standard distribution agreements. SBI Ripple Asia, a joint venture formed from SBI's 2016 investment in Ripple, has operated as part of Ripple's regional infrastructure for nearly a decade. SBI Remit began using Ripple Payments in 2017 and expanded XRP -based remittance corridors into the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia in September 2023. SBI VC Trade's own investor materials describe XRP as one of its most popular crypto assets among customers . Related Reading Japanese finance giant offers XRP rewards to bond buyers — but the payout is tiny Buyers only get the XRP if they open an SBI VC Trade account and finish receipt steps by noon May 11. Feb 27, 2026 · Gino Matos That foundation gave Ripple something most stablecoin issuers lack in Japan, which is pre-existing retail familiarity, regulated local partners, and a remittance infrastructure already operating on Ripple rails. RLUSD entered this market with institutional packaging that Ripple itself describes as enterprise-grade, fully backed by US dollar deposits, US government bonds, and cash equivalents, built around compliance and integrated into Ripple Payments for cross-border and treasury-style flows. Nomura's survey complicates the read that puts Ripple in a strong hand. The trust premium that Japanese institutions place on major financial institution issuers reflects a structural bias toward familiar, supervised counterparties. The FSA's stablecoin framework limits issuance of digital-money-type stablecoins to banks, fund transfer service providers, and trust companies, with redemption and safeguarding requirements attached to each structure. Bank-issued stablecoins offer protection equivalent to that of conventional bank deposits. Japan's regulatory architecture, by design, concentrates credibility around supervised financial entities. Ripple , regardless of its compliance posture, falls outside that category. The competition already building RLUSD's planned distribution through SBI VC Trade , still described in late 2025 SBI investor materials as pending approval, falls within a field that Japan's established financial institutions are actively developing. In November 2025, MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank, SMBC, and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Progmat announced an FSA-supported proof of concept for joint stablecoin issuance and cross-border settlement. SBI's own materials show that USDC is already approved in Japan through its relationship with Circle , that RLUSD is planned for listing once approval is cleared, and that a JPY-pegged stablecoin study is underway with SMBC. That competitive picture reframes what RLUSD is actually competing for in Japan. Use case / market lane Likely trust advantage Cross-border payments RLUSD / Ripple-linked infrastructure International remittances RLUSD / Ripple-linked infrastructure Exchange liquidity RLUSD / crypto-linked issuers Treasury management Major financial institution issuers Tokenized securities settlement Major financial institution issuers Domestic corporate payments Major financial institution issuers The open question is which issuer types will capture the highest-trust, highest-value institutional use cases, as Nomura's 63% figure puts adoption itself beyond doubt. Treasury management, tokenized securities settlement, and domestic corporate payments are the use cases most sensitive to issuer identity. Cross-border payments, exchange liquidity, and international remittances are the use cases where Ripple's existing infrastructure and RLUSD's design are strongest. Ripple built its position in Japan through payments and remittances, and RLUSD's rollout plan points in the same direction. Nomura's trust data points to institutions reaching