Japanese tourists may soon pay in Korea with a yen stablecoin: inside the Shinhan Card and SBI pilot

Will Japanese tourists pay with stablecoins in Korea? A pilot announced this week aims to find out. Shinhan Card, one of South Korea's largest card issuers, has signed a memorandum of understanding with SBI VC Trade and SBI XDC Network APAC to explore yen stablecoin payments for Japanese visitors in South Korea, as reported by Grafa. The agreement was signed on 20 October at SBI Group's headquarters in Tokyo, according to Korean media.

The idea is simple. A Japanese visitor holding a yen stablecoin could pay a Korean merchant directly, without exchanging cash or paying the usual card foreign exchange margins. The details are not simple at all, and many of them remain undecided. But the pilot shows how Asia's biggest financial groups see stablecoins: not as speculative tokens, but as plumbing for everyday cross border spending.

What the pilot will test

According to Korean media cited in a summary by TradeAssi on note, the partners plan to verify four main areas, including whether stablecoin payments linked to a card can feel as seamless as a regular card payment. They will also test anti money laundering checks and fraud detection, which regulators in both countries will demand before any commercial launch.

The second strand goes beyond tourism. The partners also plan to test the efficiency of trade settlements using blockchain, according to Cointelegraph as cited in the same summary. Japan and South Korea are major trading partners, and faster, cheaper settlement between their companies could be more valuable than tourist payments in the long run.

What has not been decided is just as important. CoinDesk reported that the stablecoin to be used has not been announced, and the schedule for testing and commercialisation is also undecided. No figures have been released on whether exchange and card fees would be lower for travellers, which is the question most visitors will care about.

Which yen stablecoin could be used?

SBI already handles a yen denominated stablecoin called JPYSC. As of 7 September, its circulation was about 20.1 billion yen, or roughly 127 million dollars, according to the summary. But JPYSC is currently limited to accounts within SBI VC Trade and cannot be sent to external wallets, and it has not been confirmed whether it will be used in the pilot.

Japan has one of the world's clearest legal frameworks for stablecoins, and its largest banks are moving into the space. The three megabanks are piloting a joint yen stablecoin, as we covered in our report on Japan's megabanks and their yen stablecoin pilot. That gives Japanese partners a regulated base from which to build cross border uses.

The real test of a stablecoin is not whether it can trade on an exchange. It is whether a tourist can buy dinner in Seoul without thinking about it.

The broader trend is bank issued or regulated digital money entering everyday payments. HSBC switched on its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin RedCoin for millions of PayMe users last week, which we analysed in our report on what RedCoin is and what it is not.

The regulatory hurdles

Any commercial service will need to meet the rules of both Japan and South Korea, which is why the pilot will not be available for immediate use. Japan regulates stablecoins under its payment services framework, while South Korea is still finalising its approach. The Bank of Korea has pushed for stablecoins to be covered by foreign exchange law, and Korea is tightening oversight of cross border crypto transfers ahead of an amended foreign exchange law taking effect on 3 December.

That matters because a yen stablecoin spent in Korea is, in effect, a cross border payment. Regulators will want to know who holds the reserves, how the coins are converted into won for merchants, and how the system prevents money laundering and capital flight. The key regulatory questions include:

• Whether Korean law will recognise a foreign currency stablecoin for retail payments
• How merchants receive won, and who carries the exchange rate risk
• Which entity holds the reserves backing the yen stablecoin
• How anti money laundering and fraud checks work across two jurisdictions
• Whether fees are genuinely lower than card or cash exchange

What it means for travellers and merchants

For Japanese travellers, the promise is lower costs and fewer steps. If a yen stablecoin can be spent at Korean merchants through a familiar card experience, visitors could avoid exchange counters and some card fees. Whether that happens depends on pricing that has not been announced.

For Korean merchants, the appeal is access to a large tourist market without new hardware, if payments run through existing card infrastructure. For Shinhan Card, the pilot is a way to stay ahead as stablecoins threaten to bypass traditional card networks and foreign exchange revenue.

The pilot also signals that East Asian financial groups see cross border stablecoin payments as a near term opportunity rather than a distant experiment. If it works between Japan and Korea, similar models could follow for other travel corridors in Asia, including Southeast Asia, where regional central banks are already designing common approaches to digital money.

The Shinhan Card and SBI agreement is an early but telling step toward stablecoins as everyday travel money in Asia. It brings together a major Korean card issuer and a Japanese financial group with stablecoin experience, and it targets one of the region's busiest tourist corridors. The open questions on coin choice, fees and regulation will decide whether Japanese visitors actually pay this way in Seoul.