r/JapanFinance

Ive been struggling with the "best decision" for this and cant figure out what decision to make.

I am planning to retire early next year. We have no debt or liability. I would like to reduce expenses to the absolute reasonably minimum as possible. That means - not living like poor people but not being stupid either. Like netflix and Spotify for sure would get cut, but keeping two cell phones wouldn't. But changing cellphone plans to be lower cost plans is possible.

We have two cars a 2024 rav4 and a 2024 hiace wide body. The rav4 is for going around and the hiace is for transporting stuff (we own a farm, i have a workshop and move lumber or furniture sometimes, etc) . They are his and her cars. Neither car gets used a ton. Maybe 3000km on each a year. We live in the countryside and we both also have motorbikes that gets used primarily. Both cars are paid for. The hiace we have thought about using as a camping car and traveling around Japan a bit in retirement.

I contemplate what to do with the cars in retirement.

There are options

1. sell both and buy one smaller but not a death trap vehicle - still safe car. No kei truck

2. sell one

3. sell one for something smaller and still have 2

4. keep both and change nothing

5. find ways to reduce costs like dropping optional insurance and doing my own shaken but i have no idea the risks of this

Each car costs about $3000 a year just in optional insurance, taxes and shaken fees. Hiace gets like 6km/l and rav4 is about double that.

Its worth noting that my wife drives the rav4 and she probably wouldn't or couldn't drive the hiace due to its size and her just being a new and bad driver. So i would be taking some freedom from her. She really doesnt like driving any car at all to be honest but she will only drive the rav4 when shes forced to drive something.

I am just curious what a balanced perspective other reasonably minded people would take - keeping in mind both cars are paid for.

The cars can fit within a retirement budget but whether thats reasonable and logical or not is debatable. Especially when you factor that over 20 years.

Thanks

Our bank raised our interest rates again in 6 months on the loan for our home. Is this worrisome? We were told year ago that a variable interest rate was safe in Japan and would not increase much if it ever did and has now done so twice in the last year. We are now double at where we started.

It went from 0.7 to 1.35 now. A bit worried with all the financial issues in the world and global economy and oil shock it will go higher.

What can we do to prevent this or as a friend suggested switch to a flat rate loan? But that looked very expensive to get that done and all the documentation.

Not a financial expert at all so not sure what to expect for the future or how to prepare or keep ourselves safe from the effects of the global economy. Or this isn't as bad as I think it is.

Hello everyone.

Today I went to the tax office to ask about gift tax rules and received information that seems to contradict the established "consensus" (i.e., what I thought were rules and law). I am considering visiting a different tax office in the city where I live next month but also want to hear your experience and opinion first.

A little bit about me:

- My visa is Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services
- I have been living in Japan 4.5 years in total
- My parents are considering sending me amount of money that exceeds 1.1 million yen

It has been my understanding that if the amount of money you receive exceeds 1.1 million yen, then generally it becomes subject to gift tax. I believe you can later apply for deduction (or exemption?) if the received money will go for property acquisition or house loan but my knowledge is not good here. Besides, this is irrelevant in today's discussion.

Upon explaining my situation to the two tax officers who were hearing my case, they brought up the following page on the official National Tax Agency website: https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/taxanswer/zoyo/4432.htm

Specifically, they pointed to the table and asked me a few questions. Based on my answers they inferred that I don't need to pay the gift tax. The reasons are as follows:

- I have lived in Japan for less than 10 years in the last 15 years and my visa is table 1 visa, so I fall under the category of 一時居住者 (temporary resident).
- My parents have never been to Japan (it seemed like this point could become more complicated but because my parents haven't visited Japan, we just stopped there)
- The gift falls under 国外財産 (foreign asset)

Honestly, it was hard to believe what I was hearing. The title of the webpage also looked incredibly suspicious: 受贈者が外国に居住しているとき (When the recipient resides outside Japan). I asked the officers, "Doesn't this table apply only to the cases when the recipient resides outside Japan?"(translated into English for readers here) But they denied it and told me the table applies in general regardless of this.

Now, all communications were conducted exclusively in Japanese. I have N1 and consider myself proficient in both written and spoken word. The chances there was some kind of miscommunication (i.e., they mistook gift tax for inheritance tax) are close to zero.

I am bringing this up here in order to avoid the worst case scenario: next year I don't pay this gift tax but later I am told that I was supposed to. This could easily lead to problems with getting PR in the future and, potentially, cause some legal problems. I want to avoid this at all costs but at the same time I have not really heard of gift tax returning, so you would think that it has been processed correctly up to this day.

Hi everyone!

I am wondering if there are any banks in Japan that allow foreigners to have an account with them / use their banking services even if they leave Japan... Is this even possible? I.e. They don't require regular proof (e.g. With your zairyuu card) that you reside in Japan? And won't freeze your account?

Not optimistic there's a bank like that but thought I'd ask to see if anyone had any luck on this. Thank you!

Hi all,

I'm currently in the UK but planning to move to Japan with a spouse visa. We have a house in the UK that we are selling but that process is taking a long time.

My question is what happens if we decide to move to Japan and then sell the house. I would have to pay capital gains tax in the UK on the house. But what would the treatment in Japan be? Does the double taxation treaty cover this or do I have to pay either capital gains or income tax as foreign income on the proceeds of the sale?

If you’re earning a lot of dividends in your investments in Japan, what’s your strategy?

Are they in NISA? Or they are in taxable accounts?

What are the stocks / mutual funds that gives you dividends?

Ill start:

Mutual funds:
- global AI fund
- tracers

Stocks:
- jr east
- mufj

~planning to buy JT (japan tabaco)

*i didn’t bought these stocks for dividends alone but they are also earning me dividends.

I have growth and long term investments like voo, vt (from emaxis and rakuten) but wont include it as i wanna stick with dividend topic.

Whats yours?

Gross annual income of 4,600,000 yen.
Suruga initially told us they were willing to lend us the full 38,000,000 to build our home.
I have enough in overseas investments to simply purchase our home in a lump sum, though obviously that would be a poor financial decision.
I agreed to clear my 800,000-yen debt by the time of screening in July.
The reason for the July screening start date is that in July, I will officially become a direct-hire teacher for my Board of Education, which would lend more weight to my application.
A bank representative physically inspected our house lot and regularly called to collect more information.
By all indications, they expressed interest.
Proceeding with the screening was contingent on my becoming a direct hire.
Today, Suruga called me informing me that for reasons that they aren't at liberty to elaborate on, they can no longer proceed with our application.
My Japanese wife is the guarantor on our application, though her annual income is only 3,000,000.

Potential reasons for the rejection:
38,000,000 is a number that's over 8 times that of my annual income. I've read that banks are typically only willing to lend up to 7 times one's annual income.
My wife isn't a really strong guarantor given her income, so the bank may have grown doubtful of her ability to repay in the event that I was unable to continue mortgage payments.

While it was a shock to me to receive this news from the foreigner-friendly Suruga, I see that our financial circumstances give us a relatively high risk profile in their eyes. I see now that banks likely care less about one's investments than their ability to repay the loan with their income.

I applied for a single-mortgage loan. Though a joint loan with my wife would surely bolster our chances, I don't want her on the hook should anything happen to me and I am unable to continue making payments. To that end, I also intend on enrolling in group credit life insurance.

We've concurrently been talking with another bank (a 労金, specifically). With them, we named my wife's uncle as our guarantor. His annual income is eight figures, making him a stronger guarantor. The bank cleared him and, like Suruga, they are waiting for me to transition to my direct hire position before proceeding with their screening.

Not seeking advice. It just feels good to share. Maybe it will help inform other people also in the midst of bank loan applications.

Hello there!

Just wanted to give a 1 year and change update to this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/comments/1ihzyk2/am_i_doing_financially_alright_looking_for/

How it started:

- About 6.2M JPY per annum in salary.
- 2.5M JPY in cash savings
- NISA just created
- 800k JPY in Company DC
- 150k JPY in stable crypto (150k)

How it's going:
- Got promoted! After factoring yearly salary increases + promotional base, now making 8M per annum including stock options.
- Reduced cash exposure to currently 1.5M (still above 6 months of current run rate)
- NISA now grown to 1.8M using eMaxis S&P500 as main vehicle for tsumitate, and throwing in excess V points in 成長 with orkan
- Consistently maxed Company DC contributions, currently sitting at about 1.9M.
- De-risked from crypto by cashing out principal, now left with residual profit (30k).

Personal things that I want to improve on:
- Unfortunately became single as of recent, but want to channel that time and energy towards building up credentials + productive hobbies.
- Waiting for my naturalization to get approved (interview in a few weeks, wish me luck!)
- Be able to transition to internal teams that allow me to travel.

I thank the community for chiming in from my original post. Will think about doing another update next year!

Hi everyone,

Hope you're doing well. I'm currently in Tokyo and need to convert some crypto into physical Japanese Yen cash.

Since I am a visitor and don't have a Japanese bank account, I can't use the local exchanges. I know about digital prepaid cards, but I specifically need cash.

Does anyone know the best or safest way to go about this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much

Hi all, Japanese national living in France here. Bit of a cautionary tale.

I was dumb and left money sitting in my SMBC account after moving abroad in 2024, without updating my address to my parents’. My マイナンバー also reflects that I've left Japan. My account ended up restricted, and I could only deal with it in person during a visit back to Japan.

The 外国送金 process takes about a week from application to confirmation, and I can't extend my stay that long. I'm currently withdrawing cash daily but the ATM limit is only ¥500k/day. So I'm leaving with a significant amount still stuck.

To make things worse, part of the funds are in a euro-denominated sub-account within SMBC. Due to the restrictions, I can’t transfer them to the main yen account. SMBC tells me the only way to move that money out is through the 外国送金 process itself.

Wise was also a dead end, same 本人確認 issue as with SMBC.

A few questions:

1. Would updating my address to my parents' before leaving have avoided this? Or is the マイナンバー showing I've left the real issue?
2. Has anyone dealt with SMBC restrictions as a non-resident and found a way to resolve them remotely, or via 代理人 with 委任状?
3. Is there any Japanese bank more non-resident friendly for 外国送金, ideally without requiring physical presence?
4. Any other options for moving JPY out of Japan as a non-resident?

Thanks in advance, would love to know if others have been through this.

Which ETFs are you buying for your Japanese NISA/broker account?

Any tips/strategies you follow?

Please excuse my ignorance, and the long post... TLDR = the questions in bold toward the bottom. Any help much appreciated.

I have been on this sub for a while now, and thanks to everyone here I'm confident I have a pretty firm grasp on investing my savings in Japan (I'm using iDeCo, NISA, and as of this year, also a 特定口座). I get how investing in stocks & mutual funds work, how to read the graphs, how to compare the fees etc). At the moment I'm basically 95%% in eMaxis-slim All-Country & 5% in eMaxis-slim TOPIX.

But I really don't understand bonds at all... A lot of (older) long term investing advice online is based around splitting your investments between stocks and bonds, and increasing the ratio of bonds as you close in on retirement to de-risk your portfolio and avoid the dreaded sequence of returns risk in the event of a market crash/downturn as you start to use your savings.

Recently I see more and more people advocating for just sticking with 100% stocks, and seeing unimpressive returns (I gather these are called yeilds) from Japan government bonds has made it easy for me to stay 100% stocks. But now that we are seeing interest rates rise, and apparently bond yeilds with them, I'm thinking more about following that older advice and having some of my portfolio in bonds (in the future, if not now).

But I really don't understand even the very basics of bonds.

In terms of bond funds, I found an "eMaxis-slim Developed Countries ex-Japan" bond fund. When I checked the graph, it was up 15% in the last year, way higher returns than I would expect from what I have read about bonds. I assume that is due to the weakening of the yen. But if a bond fund is so exposed to fx risk, does that not negate the point of using it as a 'protection'? Is there an equivalent bond fund to the 'go-to' eMaxis-slim All-Country, that people in Japan commonly use to de risk a portion of their portfolio in retirement?

When I searched for a Rakuten Japan Gvt. Bond mutual fund, it seems that is not something that exists. You have to buy the actual bonds. I have no idea how that works... If I buy a ten year bond, is that something I have to hold for 10 years? Like a time deposit? How does buying (and holding) bonds physically work? Am I right in thinking that holding these gvt. bonds would protect from fx swings. Would they be a better option for my use case than the above mutual fund?

Thanks in advance for any information and advice, or if you can point me somewhere where I can read about this!

While this subreddit has had many posts about becoming a beneficiary of a US trust, I may be in a position to become both a beneficiary and a trustee, and I wonder if that creates any specific issues for me?

Yes I'm going to pay for professional advice, but before doing so, appreciate any comments; below are specific questions in bold.

My mother, brother, and I plan to set up the following (I am long-term resident here, the others live in the US and have no Japan connection):

1. Amend her will to create a revocable trust, which will become irrevocable upon her death.
2. All her assets will get moved into that trust while she is alive, so her estate can avoid probate
3. As long as she lives, my mother and I would be the trustees.
4. When she dies, the following benefits will be paid out:
   1. my brother will become a beneficiary with ongoing benefits. (he has some health issues, but an SNT doesn't seem to fit his needs).
   2. I would be named as a beneficiary to receive a one-time inheritance, which I suppose will be taxed in Japan like any normal inheritance, ie the existence of the trust would be irrelevant? (statutory heirs being 2, my brother and me)
5. After my mother pases away, another relative (a cousin of mine) might become a trustee. I would also very likely bring on an institutional trustee to professionalize it, for a total of 2-3 trustees. I would receive some payment for trustee services. Will Japan tax this just like any earned income? Does my role as trustee create any exposure? (eg, if NTA deemed I had some discretion to use trust assets for my own benefit)?
6. In the future, if my brother dies before me, the balance in trust would be paid out to me. If I'm living in Japan in that case, I suppose this would again be taxable like a normal inheritance? (with me now as the lone statutory heir)

I'm enrolled in 社会保険 and pay each month. I need to have a heart surgery which is not offered in Japan - there is an alternative procedure in Japan but my cardiologist here agrees it is not ideal for me. So I am planning on having the procedure in the UK, which will cost about 12 million yen. Which is significant for me.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience having insurance partially reimburse medical costs from out of the country. I had heard it might be possible if the procedure isn't available in Japan, but haven't found any official documentation for that.

Thank you

My wife’s mother passed in February this year and after spending two month at home to assist her father, my wife has found that a substantial amount of money has been hidden by her sister. This morning, my wife departed for Japan to finalise everything but is somewhat unsure of her next moves. From what I have been able to read, with no will made by the deceased, the heirs(in this case) are to share equally.

So, but how does one recover this inheritance when the sibling will not follow through?

Can police be involved(I understand it is a civil matter)?

What other options would be open to her in this regard.

I have no understanding of what can be done and can only help her by asking others. Appreciate any options given, thanks.

*I am not seeking any professional advice.

Hi! I'm a jp citizen that's currently unemployed (still searching atm) but I upload game content on social media which has generated me around ¥80,000 in revenue so far this year (jan-april). I have not had any other earnings/job (I upload content as a hobby and dont really consider it a job?) would I still have to report/pay taxes for the amount ive made? Also is it considered a job and would I have to pay full amount for pension? (I've applied for discount and such a while back for pensions since I'm currently unemployed and find it difficult to pay).

I also read somewhere that income lower than ¥560,000(? not sure of the amount) is fine to not report/pay as long as you do not have a job but im not sure how it works since I'm new to all this.

I'd appreciate any answer since I have almost no knowledge at this. Thank you!

I'm trying to calculate profit/loss on an FX transaction for tax purposes.

For example, if I convert 9,000 AUD to 6,418 USD at Prestia, do I use the USD->JPY rate as the "final amount"? or do I use the AUD->JPY rate as the final amount?

It makes more sense to use the USD amount since that's the actual amount received.

Thank you.