As we all know, Japan has been extremely, extremely, *extremely* conservative toward cryptocurrency for a long time. But look at it now—CZ went from having no choice but to leave Japan back in the day to now being able to give a speech in front of the Japanese Prime Minister. So, when exactly did Japan start to “warm up” to crypto? First, let’s talk about why Japan was so conservative about crypto in the past. Besides cultural factors within Japan itself, the external reasons were two *epic* hacks (Mt. Gox in 2014 and Coincheck in 2018). And every time a hack happened, Japan would go into a deep freeze for four years. So, what was the turning point? Stablecoins. It wasn’t until 2022 that Japan finally, albeit slowly, established Web3 as part of its national economic growth strategy. But here’s the thing: what they called Web3 was really all about stablecoins. In 2023, Japan continued to loosen restrictions on stablecoins, introducing a new *Payment Services Act* that classified fiat-backed redeemable stablecoins as “electronic payment instruments” rather than “crypto assets.” By 2025, USDC will be allowed for use in Japan. Reuters even reported that Japanese regulators might permit the issuance of the first yen-backed stablecoin, JPYC. Clearly, stablecoins have an irresistible pull when it comes to national policy. Forget about “暗号資産” (crypto assets) or “仮想通貨” (virtual currency)—they don’t really get it and don’t want to. All they remember is how badly they got burned before. But mention stablecoins, and suddenly they’re all ears. Crypto’s killer app, aside from Bitcoin itself, is already here: stablecoins, no doubt about it.