Something BIG is happening in Japan, and $XRP is already positioned right inside it.

What gets me is that this isn’t one random partnership.

SBI Holdings has been tied to Ripple since 2016.

SBI still owns roughly 9% of Ripple, making it Ripple’s largest external shareholder.

Then there’s SBI Ripple Asia, owned 60% by SBI Group and 40% by Ripple Labs.

But ownership is only the beginning.

Japan already has a live XRP payment route.

SBI Remit + SBI VC Trade + Ripple launched Japan’s first crypto-powered international remittance service in 2021.

The flow is simple:

Japanese money enters

SBI VC Trade supplies XRP in real time XRP bridges the currencies local money reaches the recipient.

That later expanded into bank-account payments across the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, with Tranglo handling payouts.

Now move into 2026.

SBI Ripple Asia has completed an XRPL-based token issuance platform under Japan’s existing payment regulations.

It has demonstrated tokenized bank deposits using MoneyTap and XRPL.

It is researching Japan-Korea payments with DSRV Labs.

RLUSD officially launched in Japan through SBI VC Trade.

And SBI VC Trade now has 2M+ registered crypto accounts.

Even SBI Holdings, SBI Shinsei Bank and SBI ARUHI are distributing XRP through shareholder programs.

That is why Japan gets me so bullish.

$XRP isn’t being introduced to Japan from scratch.

The rails, the companies, the liquidity providers and the users are already there.

Now the ecosystem keeps getting wider.