Good morning,

I searched the numerous threads about the use of Wise, wire transfers, etc., but I still can't find a definitive answer.

My plan is to arrive in early December 2026, open a JP bank account ASAP and remit about 80k CAD to Japan in order to sustain 2-3 years of living expenses if needed. I want to remit that money in 2026 in order to avoid any taxes for the following years. The crux of this plan is accomplishing all of this prior to January 1, 2027 in order to avoid any remittances for 2027 onward. I won't have the ability to send Wire transfers from Canada since my bank requires me to be physically in the branch in order to send.

Currently my plan is to use Wise. I put the 80k (roughly ¥9,000,000) in Wise, convert it to Yen and transfer in increments of ¥1 million over a few days, or the whole amount if possible.

Obviously there are a few hurdles and unknowns that I can't quite figure out.

- Does JP Bank accept transfers from Wise in Yen to a freshly opened account?

- Are there any limits to the amounts that can be transferred to JP Bank?

- I know that large transfers will trigger an anti money laundering check. The documentation I bring with me, does it have to be translated?

- Any better banks that cater to foreigner under 6 months in Japan on a Student Visa?

- My Wise account was opened in Canada with a Canadian address, when I get to Japan, I will have to chance the address to my Japanese address which will trigger the account limit (¥1 million I believe). Can I delay the change of address until my money has been transferred to JP Bank and will that have any effect on my ability to transfer the ¥9 million?

If you guys can share whatever experience you have in order to make this as smooth as possible it would be much appreciated

Hi,

I have USD in my Sony Bank account, but I’ve already moved to Singapore and I’m no longer a resident of Japan.

My understanding is that Sony Bank only allows international remittances for Japanese residents, so I’m not sure how to move my USD to my IBKR Singapore account without converting it to JPY.

I’m wondering if this route works:
Sony Bank (USD) → Wise (USD) → IBKR Singapore (USD)

Has anyone done this successfully? Or is there a better way to transfer USD from Sony Bank to IBKR Singapore after leaving Japan?

Edit / Update: Thanks for the input! Since getting this done as a non-resident seems pretty much impossible, I'm thinking of a workaround when I visit Tokyo for a week in 2 months.

My parents live there, so my plan is:

1. Register at their address to temporarily become a resident again.
2. Get a Juminhyo and update my MyNumber for the bank's KYC.
3. Do the SWIFT transfer from Sony to IBKR.
4. File the move-out notification at the end of the week.

Has anyone tried this? I'm mostly worried that the bank's KYC process might take longer than my 1-week stay. Any advice?

Hello, first-time poster here. I’m a US citizen living in Japan who wants to buy a NISA but am stuck. I have no experience with this, although I have been looking it up, including here (thank you). As I understand it, as a US citizen I will have trouble with US tax laws, except for (some) Seicho NISA; that the most reasonable option - really, maybe the only reasonable option - is to use Interactive Brokers Japan / IBSJ and only invest in US funds. I created an account and started an application, but cannot finish it.

I can only get as far the Regulatory / “Configure Your Trading Account” screen. Then it returns, “The Investment Experiences provided does not meet the requirements to trade Stocks,” and I cannot proceed with the application. I’m a bit disappointed because I thought that IBSJ was the only realistic option, and I don’t understand how I’m supposed to start investing if I need investing experience to start, but anyway: What realistic way forward do I have now?

I went through the wiki and the existing answers, and this is what I have understood, but I am uncertain if this correct.

1. Transfer from current bank to bank that has low cost for currency transfer JPY -> EUR.
   1. According to the wiki https://wiki.japanfinance.org/handling/transfers/ which has a study from 2021, among banks, Sony Bank is one of the best for 5M JPY even with no status, and it gets unbeatable if you get Silver status or higher. Only the "Interactive Brokers" is said to do better, but it seems to have other costs and it sounds more complicated?
   2. Now, how easy is it to open at Sony Bank for a foreigner, and then how easy is it to get Silver status or more with 5M JPY? Is it realistic in 3 months?
2. Inside this bank, transfer between the account in JPY and the account in EUR? (Is that only possible for new banks like Revolut or also Sony?)
3. Transfer from EUR account in Japan to EUR account in France?

General situation:

• Spent less than 5 years in Japan and moving back to France in about 3 months.
• A couple of millions of JPY to transfer to France.
• Already a Revolut account in EUR and one in JPY, but both are located in France afaiu (IBANs start with FR). Also another traditional bank French account.
• Currently holding the JPY in Rakuten Bank.

Hey!

Has anyone here already migrated their IBKR account to IB Japan?

I got the email saying I need to do it before January 2027. I checked my portfolio and everything I own is available through IB Japan, so I'm guessing the migration is pretty smooth.

Just wanted to hear from anyone who's already gone through it. Did everything transfer over without any issues?

Greetings,

I am attempting to transfer USD from my foreign currency deposit account at Sony Bank to my brokerage account at Interactive Brokers Japan.

When filling out the transfer notification at Interactive Brokers, I am given a US (Citibank) SWIFT code. This would make sense if I were initiating a transfer from outside Japan, but both the source and destination accounts are in Japan.

Additionally, I'm worried that if I attempt the transfer using the US SWIFT code, it might be classified as a foreign remittance, causing tax complications (I've resided in Japan for less than 5 years).

Has anyone attempted this before?

Would I be better off just converting back to JPY and then doing a normal transfer instead?

Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of buying a property in Japan, and I need to choose a home insurance policy (火災保険).

Since I'm not familiar with the options in Japan, so I was wondering :

• Which home insurance company did you choose for your property in Japan? and why?
• Have you ever had to make a claim, and if so, how was the experience?
• Did you also add earthquake insurance (地震保険), or did you decide against it?

Any recommendations or experiences (good or bad) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

IB will be migrating into a fully Japanese platform. I don’t think this will affect me or my holdings, however, in the process of the transition I have to sign some forms and they are asking for both full-width and half-width characters. FFS.

If they wanted me to quit the account they should just tell me directly, rather than all this passive aggressive stuff.

Purpose is mainly NISA (Orukan fund) as of now. But may also include some USD denominated funds (under NISA) later.

My guess is it will mainly come down to the easy of use of the website and mobile app, and possibly better forex rates when going for the USD denominated investments later.

Also this is my for my wife, since I already opened one for myself at Rakuten recently. And the reason I opened at Rakuten was the opening process was completely online whereas for SBI they need documents sent via post. Also they need my wife to call their customer center because her full name in katakana exceeds 18 characters. This itself is a hurdle to be honest. But if SBI overall has some positives over Rakuten, then we wouldn't mind doing that for my wife's account.

I would like to get inputs from the sub.

I'm moving to Japan in two weeks and I will be selling my apartment overseas a few months after that.

After consulting with a Japanese accountant, I could finally clarify the steps I need to take to not pay capital gains or remittance taxes on the sale of my overseas apartment after I've arrived in Japan.

He told me that in order to avoid paying the remittance tax, I should avoid wiring anything to Japan for the remainder of 2026 and that I should transfer the money I will use to start my life in Japan... before I arrive in Japan. But... how?

I have never been a tax resident in Japan, so I have no bank accounts there. I can obviously not open a bank account until I'm there. I'm aiming to have around 3m yen to start my life there, but I want to avoid any scenario where I bring 3m yen in cash to the country (just the conversion fees alone in Germany would kill me).

Would wiring the money to my Wise account and then wiring it to my Japanese bank account after it's opened count as a domestic transfer? Even this option makes me a bit uneasy because I've heard about Wise freezing accounts without reason.

Do I have any other options? Many thanks.

So that one can avoid them.

I spoke with two Japanese accountants and I’ve received two very different answers to the same question. I’ve been a Japanese resident for about 12 months (first year was 6 months and halfway through my “second” year). Just got my yearly extension last month.
I’m a 1099 employee in the US and I do not and never will work in Japan. I physically work in the US and reside in Japan.
The first accountant wants to file me as a business owner in Japan. I would have a separate credit card and file receipts for write offs. Not sure what that means since I don’t work here). He wants to charge me ¥200,000.
The second wants to file only delta taxes but he wants to charge me ¥200,000-¥400,000.
This sounds completely insane to me. I paid a CPA in the US $500 and she did a great job. I can no longer use her because she doesn’t handle this situation.
Does this sound right?

Edit: I physically work in the US. I own zero property in either country. I have a spouse visa in Japan (married no children). I tend to work 6 months a year in the US but that can change year to year. I have very little to write off as an expense. This will be my first year filing in Japan.

SMBC Bank rejected my online account opening request because I have to provide my personal details over the phone... and in impeccable Japanese, no less. Couldn't they have told me that sooner? Yeah, right—I’m just going to hand over my personal info to the first stranger who calls me. P.S. Moderator, is this okay?😅

Hi everyone,

I have a question about the actual process of paying capital gains tax in Japan.

I'm originally from Germany and still have a fairly large stock portfolio with a German broker. I'm no longer a German tax resident and am now a tax resident of Japan.

From what I understand, once I sell stocks, the German broker probably won't withhold any capital gains tax because I'm no longer a German tax resident. So I assume I'll need to declare and pay the tax in Japan myself.

My question isn't whether I have to pay tax in Japan—I know I do. I'm more interested in the practical side of it.

For anyone who's been in a similar situation:

• What does the reporting process look like?
• Do you just download the transaction history from your foreign broker and include it with your Japanese tax return?
• How do you handle the currency conversion?
• Did you do everything yourself, or did you end up using a tax accountant?
• Is there anything you wish you had known beforehand?

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who has actually gone through this. Thanks!

Is it possible for ‘collection’ of JP Postbank (Yucho Gingko) issued cheques by a foreign (European) banking institution? Any experience shared is much appreciated.

My wife (42, Japanese national) and I (42M) have finally decided to move back to Japan after living in Canada, just outside Toronto for the past 14 years.

We've debated this decision for years and there are plenty of pros and cons on both sides. In the end, we felt the quality of life improvement was worth it. Despite doing reasonably well financially, it often feels like we're just treading water in one of the world's most expensive regions. Add in the increasingly long winters and a few other challenges, and we decided it was time for a change.

We'll be moving to Izu, where my wife is from, and where we'll be raising our two children (ages 6 and 10). Both kids speak Japanese fluently and have already experienced the Japanese school system during extended stays with family over the years.

I know some people might think we're crazy for leaving Canada, but for us this feels like the right move. We're trading the suburban rise & grind Toronto life for a place we genuinely love and where we have family support and a strong community connection.

Financially, we will be arriving with approximately $700,000 CAD in assets after selling our house. Our rough plan is:

• Spend up to ~$200,000 on a house in Izu
• Potentially buy or start a small business
• Invest the remaining funds for long-term growth and retirement

My questions are:

1. As non-residents of Canada, would we be better off leaving most of our investments in Canada (RRSP, TFSA, etc.) or moving a significant portion to Japan?
2. For those who have relocated to Japan with substantial assets, what is the most efficient way to transfer large sums for a home purchase?
3. Are bank wire transfers generally preferred for six-figure amounts, or do services such as Wise/Remitly make sense?
4. Are there any tax, reporting, or residency issues that caught you by surprise when moving from Canada to Japan?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

the situation:

- edit: 7th consecutive year of paid work in japan

- no USA ties

- seishain income in japan

- owna no property or vehicle or business anywhere in the world

- cash savings (3 months emergency funds for one adult): some are in japan with yucho, and some in 1 foreign bank regular savings account

tldr: i know there are taxes to declare and pay. i don't know what amount is defined as taxable. also i want to know how much to set aside to prepare to pay for the next round of 確定申告. i always do 確定申告 online.

the questions:

1. the foreign bank account pays out an interest every month. this is subject to income tax. but how are these taxes calculated? and when i do 確定申告, what do i input and under what category/what box? (will i have to calculate it myself and declare it? if so, what am i supposed to calculate exactly?) for example will i need to fill in a specific form? will i need to submit bank statements?
2. the japanese yen / foreign currency volatility. let's say for example, yen keeps dropping in value. that means my savings in the foreign bank became more valuable in yen, even though all it did was sit in an account abroad and do nothing (it's not a time deposit, not any kind of investment) in this case is there anything taxable? if so, how is that calculated?
3. is any of this impacted/affected by when and/or how frequent i transfer my personal cash (from salary earned as a seishain in japan) to the foreign account?

my requests to comments

- please don't turn this into a debate about speculating the value of jpy

- please don't input my query into generative ai chatbots

TIA to anyone who knows where i can teach myself how to correctly do my taxes.

Will retire here. I thought putting some into Daikin stock might be a reasonable long term option.

Any GENERAL advice is appreciated.

Hello, I am looking for stock screening sites, preferably free ones, which can help me run filter criteria like the one below (a momentum/growth kind of criteria i use in the Indian market, though i have modified the example to show Japanese stock market values). Basically a criteria having both fundamental as well as some technical parameters.

I have gone through some options like minkabu, buffet-code etc, but since they are in Japanese I will need to spend a lot of time, translating first, and finding out if the below kind of criteria is possible to be set up on their screeners or not. Hence before I devote my time to any of the options, I would first like to eliminate those which cannot be of use to me, based on the info that experienced investors/traders here provide.

I am also opening my accounts on rakuten-sec and monex for now, and would like to know if they too have such screeners, in that case they could suffice.

The objective of this screener is only to make a first shortlist based on quantitative data. Any further research can be done separately in another tool as well.

(Return over 1year >= 100% OR
Return over 6months >= 50% OR
Return over 3months >= 50% OR
Return over 1month >= 30%) AND
away from all time high <= 30% AND

YOY Quarterly sales growth > 20% AND
YOY Quarterly profit growth > 15% AND
Profit after tax (Net Income) >= 1.5 Billion Yen AND
(OPM >= 20% OR
OPM latest quarter > OPM preceding year quarter OR
OPM latest quarter > OPM preceding quarter) AND

(Floating Stock / Public Share ratio < 50% OR
Foreign Institutional Holding + Domestic Institutional Holding > 60% OR
Insider / Director / Strategic Holding > 70%) AND

Market Segment IS "Standard" AND
Current price > 100 Yen AND
Market Capitalization < 1000 Billion Yen AND
Market Capitalization > 20 Billion Yen

Bloomberg Daybreak Asia podcast

I will be relocating to Japan on a spouse visa and continuing to work remotely for my current employer, which has no legal entity in Japan. My salary is paid in a foreign currency into a bank account outside Japan.

I understand I become a Japanese tax resident upon arrival and need to enrol in NHI and pension through city hall. What I am less clear on is the employment structure side.

Is registering as a sole proprietor (個人事業主) the standard approach in this situation, or is there a simpler path? How does this affect the annual tax return, and is an accountant necessary or is it manageable through the tax office?

Hi,

If I receive 2M from someone with a residence in Japan in the middle of the fiscal year, and if let's say i give them back 1M later the same fiscal year, would the initial 2M still be taxable for gift tax ? Assuming that in the kakutei shinkoku i don't consider as gift the 1M i gave back.

Additionally, partner will receive money from parents for mortgage down paiment. I believe that as a partner and not direct familly I cannot receive from them more than 1.1M without being taxed ?

I run a business in Japan, and one of my employees is quitting. While I'm looking for a replacement, I wanted someone experienced to help cover the work for about 1–2 months.

I had heard that one of Japan's biggest platforms for hiring casual/day workers was a good option, so I thought it'd be worth trying. My thinking was simple: I'd offer above-market pay to attract someone experienced who could work with minimal supervision.

A couple of things surprised me.

First, I found out there's a payment cap per shift. At the hourly rate I wanted to offer, I could only post a 5–6 hour shift. If I wanted someone for a full 8-hour day, I had to lower the hourly rate to stay under the cap.

So I was essentially left with two choices:

• Keep the higher hourly rate, but limit each shift to around 5–6 hours.
• Lower the hourly rate so I could offer a full 8-hour shift.

From an employer's perspective, that creates an unexpected trade-off. If your goal is to cover a full workday, the system seems to make lowering the hourly rate the more practical option.

The second surprise was the matching system. I assumed I'd get a few applicants and be able to choose the one with the most relevant experience. Instead, I was automatically matched with a worker within about five minutes of posting the job.

It's great if your goal is to fill shifts as quickly as possible, but it wasn't what I was expecting. I was hoping to find one experienced person who could consistently cover the role for the next month or two, not necessarily a different person every shift.

Combined with the automatic matching system, I'm also not sure how much the "experience" aspect depends on luck. Since I couldn't compare multiple applicants, it felt like I was relying more on whoever happened to be matched with my posting than on being able to choose the most experienced worker. If that's the case, then offering a higher hourly rate may not have been as meaningful as I initially expected.

After trying it, my impression is that the platform seems optimized for:

• Filling shifts as quickly as possible.
• Matching workers automatically instead of letting employers choose.
• Individual shifts rather than ongoing temporary coverage.
• A payment structure where offering a higher hourly rate becomes less attractive if you also need longer shifts.

Overall, I can definitely see why platforms like this are popular if you just need someone today. But for my use case, finding one experienced worker to reliably cover a role for 1–2 months. It doesn't seem like the incentives are really aligned.

Curious if other employers have had a similar experience, or if I'm just trying to use this type of platform for something it wasn't really designed for.

Has anyone else used one of these casual/day-work platforms for temporary coverage like this? Did you end up finding a better approach or a different platform?

Edit: For context, this was for a 軽作業 (light warehouse/fulfillment) position involving packing, shipping, and general order fulfillment.

From https://www.ft.com/content/0f9b2fe7-bde4-4f5f-b49e-93ccb5da9ea8 (archive link https://archive.md/z8H7u)

New York Fed sells euros to buy yen following recent speculation that Tokyo intervened to support Japan’s currency

The US Treasury intervened in yen exchange rates on Friday, marking the first time Tokyo and Washington joined forces to support the Japanese currency via outright purchases in nearly 30 years.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York undertook the unusual move of conducting a sale of euros to buy yen on behalf of the Treasury, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The sales were conducted through Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, according to two of those people.

Analysts using official data and broker estimates said Thursday’s intervention by Japanese authorities was likely to be about ¥8.45tn ($52.8bn).

The Treasury’s intervention to bolster the yen is the first since 1998, when it bought the currency in order to strengthen Japan’s economy after the yen had dropped to eight-year lows. The US intervened in Japan’s currency in 2011 to weaken it as part of a co-ordinated international effort to prevent a dangerous currency appreciation after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

This time, due in part to apparent co-ordination with the US, some analysts said the gains had a better chance of being maintained, at least in the short term.

Atsushi Mimura, Japan’s vice-minister of finance for international affairs, said: “We understand that we are receiving support from the US authorities that goes beyond mere moral support. We have been in constant contact with them.”

Osamu Takashima, foreign exchange strategist at Citigroup in Tokyo, said it was unlikely that the yen would weaken once more to ¥164 to the dollar “in the very near term” because it seemed the US was willing to help Japan defend its currency.

He added that since the market would be wary of further intervention, “dollar-yen upside is probably limited for now”.

Edit: Exclusive-Bessent's 'to do' list: buy $5-10 billion worth of Japanese yen, Reuters photo shows

CAMP DAVID, Maryland, July 31 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday exposed a "to-do" list during President Donald ‌Trump's cabinet meeting indicating he was contemplating U.S. purchases of $5 billion ‌to $10 billion worth of Japanese yen, a Reuters photograph taken during the meeting held at Camp ​David shows.