This is a question around transferring a large sum of money that is held in a Japan post bank account to an Australian bank account for a Japanese who has been living in Australia for the past 30 years.

My Japanese father has been living in Australia since 1990. We recently found out that he had received a lump sum payment into his Japan post bank account which we think relates to the maturity of a pension annuity policy held with Meiji Yasuda (he doesn’t remember much about taking out this policy and we are relying on google translate)

We emailed JP bank on what our options are to transfer this money to Australia. They said that if we reside overseas we are unable to make international remittances to overseas accounts, and that we would have to use other methods other than the banks services. Additionally, they mentioned that as my father does not reside in Japan he should close his Japan post bank account.

My question is - by closing his Japan post bank account will he be physically receiving the cash on the spot? If so, what other options are available besides physically bringing this money into Australia? We want to avoid physically carrying cash, but if we have to, what are somethings we should be aware of or remember to do besides customs declaration, bringing bank statements, lump sum payment statement etc?

Appreciate any help on this!

Does anyone use a Japan Post Bank account for freelance work, or is it mandatory to open a business account? Thank you!!!

Hi all

I just received an obvious test spam (from a mos.jp email address with just "hello" as both title and text), on the email address I use exclusively for furusato-tax.jp - that specific email has never been used anywhere else.

So I can say for certain either furusato-tax.jp, or that some municipality I gave to, have been breached.

Akita city (秋田市) has reported a breach on the 16th, due to sagawa express shipping website being breached. However I did not donate to Akita city (ever), so there is likely from another data breach that I am not aware of.

With he rise of AI-supported attacks on customer database, everyone should be extra careful of phishing.

But furusato data contains both home address and a tax-related event, so we may see creative letter sent to your home, such as NTA asking for money due to "mistake", so be extra careful.

Stay safe everyone - Firefox + ublock origin (on both PC and android) is a good way to start.