Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin faces friction in Japan despite deep XRP roots, as institutional trust favours megabank-issued tokens

Japan has been one of Ripple's most reliable markets for years. SBI first invested in Ripple back in 2016. SBI Remit launched Japan's first international remittance corridor using XRP in 2021. SBI VC Trade still counts XRP among its most traded assets. When Ripple and SBI announced in August 2025 that SBI VC Trade planned to distribute RLUSD in Japan, it seemed like a straightforward next step for a well-established partnership. A survey of 518 investment professionals in Japan, conducted by Nomura and Laser Digital between December 2025 and January 2026 and published on April 16, sheds light on where institutional trust actually sits. 63% of respondents saw practical use cases for stablecoins, including treasury management, cross-border payments, crypto investing, and tokenised securities. But here is the critical finding: across JPY, USD, and EUR denominations, the stablecoins that earned the most trust were those issued by large financial institutions. Crypto-native issuers ranked lowest. This is the tension. Japan may be Ripple's friendliest proving ground, but it is also where the ceiling for crypto-branded stablecoins becomes visible. Why Japan was expected to be different deserves some context. Ripple's footprint in Japan goes well beyond typical distribution agreements. SBI Ripple Asia, a joint venture from SBI's 2016 investment, has functioned as part of Ripple's regional infrastructure for nearly a decade. SBI Remit started using Ripple Payments in 2017 and later expanded XRP-based remittance corridors into the Philippines and Vietnam. I think the data is fairly clear on what matters to Japanese institutions right now. Issuer identity and backing carry more weight than token design or blockchain architecture. The question for Ripple and partners like Coincex is whether RLUSD can overcome that trust gap without megabank issuance behind it. That remains an open problem worth watching closely.