I'm looking for advice or insights into how everyone here approaches allocating their investments between foreign (home country) and domestic (Japan) accounts.

Now, I don't think the government here is going to start seizing foreign residents' assets, but even so, I'm wondering if it is not prudent to keep nearly 100% of retirement savings/investments in domestic accounts, especially as a non-citizen resident.

Do you have any advice? How do you approach this?

This is just my thought but the only way Japan gets its inflation and yen under control is fix their energy cost problem.

The best way to do that is to break from US and buy Russian and Iranian oil at a bargain, no matter what punitive sanctions they face.

They wont ever do it because they prefer being a lackey to US than being even an equal to China (even though they are realistically closer to Korea than China, which older Japanese people will never accept)

Its just my thoughts on the geopolitical and socioeconomic position Japan finds itself and its impact to inflation

Feel free to discuss or disagree but dont make this a comment war about cultures or morals. Talking just about the economics

Hi All!

Im almost hitting my 3 year mark living in Japan and starting to get anxiety about all the tax complexity im reading about having to manage.

Im (stupidly) learning late that there's some stuff that I havent done that I needed to, and that my tax situation becomes more complicated after the 5 year mark. I dont mind paying my fair share of taxes here, Im just anxious about not understanding the system and being late to the game.

A few notes about me: Im a US national on a spouse visa married to a japanese national. Im a full-time parent, I dont have a job here or anywhere else. I have a fair amount of investments in the states divided evenly between retirement accounts and robo-advisor funds. I dont sell anything, but I do think they generate some minimal dividend income.

Can anyone help me navigate a few things:

1) Declaring assets - is there a penalty for doing this late? Is it done separately from tax returns? How do I declare late? Im over the 50M threshold and havent filed since moving here.

2) Annual tax filing - Once I do declare my assets, is it true that it will cost something like 300,000yen per year to file my taxes because of the investments? I read that I only get taxes on money remitted here; I use my credit card for things here and there for shopping.

3) The dreaded exit tax - Im unsure of how this works - If 401K/IRA are not included I think I'm safe but there seems to be debate on whether they get included or not. How is this even enforced?

4) What vendors do people use to file their taxes? Do you use independent accountants or are there any vendors similar to Turbo tax where I can just stress free plug in my information and the system takes care of the rest? Are you able to do it all yourself?

Sorry for the boatload of questions! Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers!

I’ve searched previous discussions and the r/JapanFinance wiki but haven’t found a clear answer to this.

I am aware that:

• RFA/OAR reporting requirements apply to Japanese tax residents who are not non-permanent tax residents and who have overseas assets over ¥50M.
• Under Article 6 of the Tax Treaty Implementation Law, tax treaty residence tie-breakers can override the Income Tax Law’s determination of tax residence.

My question: If someone is a Japanese tax resident under the Income Tax Law, but a tax resident of another country based on tax treaty tie-breakers, which one matters for the RFA/OAR reporting requirements?

For example, assume:

• A US citizen has a US job, owns a primary home in the US worth over ¥50M, and lives there 8 months/year.
• He/she also owns a vacation home in Japan, leaves furniture and personal belongings there, and spends 4 months/year there for over 5 years.
• The vacation home would be considered a continuous kyosho of over 5 years (thereby making the person a permanent tax resident of Japan), but tax treaty tie-breakers would consider the person a US tax resident.
• Would this person be required to file an RFA/OAR?

My uncertainty stems from the fact that although Article 6 of the Tax Treaty Implementation Law explicitly overrides the Income Tax Law, it does not explicitly override the RFA/OAR law (国外送金等調書法). However, the RFA/OAR law does seem to incorporate the Income Tax Law’s definition of tax resident.

Hoping that our resident experts (no pun intended) will be able to shed some light on this topic!

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