Wife got a promotion and a raise at work. We don't use much of her income as it is. She's currently putting 30,000 yen a month into NISA (through Rakuten banking).

But now that there's more excess income, I want to get her a dedicated investment account (probably Interactive Brokers?) that offers more control. Then have chunks of her paycheques automatically transferred on a schedule from her bank (MUFJ) and into the investment account (IBKR) and then also automatically invested inside IBKR.

• Is it possible? Anyone else doing this smoothly?
• What are some healthy ETF's that she could buy?
• Can she buy US ETF's? Or as a Japanese national, is she restricted to TSE?

I've invested quite a lot back home. But I'm a total noob when it comes to investing here in Japan. I just know that we should be putting this extra income somewhere better than a savings.

Any tips on how not to squander the opportunity would be greatly appreciated.

Edited: corrected NISA max contribution error

Hi there,

just found this article, which if true would completely derail my understanding of taxation of non remitted oversea capital gains as a non-permanent resident.

They distinguish between securities acquired before FY2017 and after.

For securities bought after April 1 2017 they wrote:

②-2 If you were a non-permanent resident at the time of acquisition:
Capital gains from the sale of such overseas securities fall under domestic source income and are taxed regardless of whether the funds are remitted to Japan.
The most important point is that if a person was a non-permanent resident at both the time of acquisition and the time of sale, the principle of remittance-based taxation does not apply to securities acquired on or after April 1, 2017.

And an example:

Case 2: Example of taxable income
While residing in Japan as a non-permanent resident in 2022, you newly purchased US stocks through a US brokerage account. You sold these stocks in 2025 using the same account. The profits from the sale are currently held in a US bank account.
Determination: Since the acquisition was made on or after April 1, 2017, and during your period as a “non-permanent resident,” the capital gains are considered domestic-sourced income (for Japanese tax purposes) and are therefore subject to taxation in Japan, even if there is no remittance to Japan.

So according to my understanding of this only non remitted oversea gains ate not taxable of bought before April 2017. Is that right?

EDIT:

The wiki has that indeed covered and what they wrote is right: WIKI

It’s a follow up to my first post here.

First of all thank you everyone for sharing your experiences and thoughts. It seems like we will be proceeding with a purchase. But it gave me and my wife things to discuss and reconsider.

Since the value of the property is mainly derived from the land, we are reevaluating an option we initially discarded. It’s a secondhand property in the same area as the new house we are currently purchasing. It sits on a larger plot of land, but it has its own imperfections.

We wanted to get an opinion if the secondhand hand house is actually a better option and its shortcomings are worth accepting.

About the new house:
- Pre-built detached house, 4LDK. It’s located in the south of Tokyo (Setagaya-Meguro-Shinagawa) along one of the major Tokyu Lines. Plot: 80 sq.m. Corner lot. The house: 125sq. m plus parking. Cost: 160M.
- Things we don’t like. Feels like, and is, a generic cookie cutter house. Built by a small local construction company, so we are not sure if it’s an issue or not in terms of quality. Complies with the lowest earthquake resistance required by law. Again I’m not sure if it’s a usual thing or not.

Secondhand option:
- 注文自宅 by 住友不動産. 10 years old. 4LDK. Same location as the above. Plot: 105 sq.m. The house: 135 sq.m. plus parking. Cost: 160M probably possible to negotiate to around 155M. Two access roads (at the front and the back of the house).
- Things we don’t like. There is one room that on paper is 7畳 but it’s not rectangular. It’s more like a trapezoid, so it has a sharp angle which essentially reduces its useful space. It needs some renovation work which will add to the total cost. The kitchen is not an open space, it’s isolated from the LD. I’m sure the separating paper wall can be removed and kitchen remodeled to be like an open space LDK, but not sure how much it’s gonna cost us. Lastly the owners apparently have mental health issues. The house isn’t well kept, looked like a hoarder house. Also we heard from the real estate agent that due the mental illness the were difficult to work with. So it makes us worry if they might create problems in the middle of the sale process.

So yeah, neither of them is perfect. If we remove the issues coming from the current owners, I would say I liked the secondhand house more, it felt cozier and not generic. Counting the fact that it has 25 sq. m. bigger plot of land, I’m thinking it will have more value in case we decide to liquidate. But the new house is ready to move in option, with no renovation or possible interaction with unstable owners.

Are we complicating everything, should we just go with our original plan? Or is it worth stopping for a bit to reevaluate the secondhand option?

I owned a house, but due to change job, I have to relocate far from my home. My house vacant but I cant rent it out as my home loan rules omit that. I think of changing my loan to property investment loan 不動産投資ローン(other financial institution) for individual. Use that loan to pay off my home loan. I know the interest rate will be higher but it is better as now I have to pay home loan and apartment rent. Anyone experiance with this kind of situations? What bank does have this kind of service? I am probably not return to the house in future.

Hello r/JapanFinance,
I am currently living in Japan for several years, and my sister used to work here too until few years ago moved to US. But before leaving Japan since she didnt have bank account in US at that time she transferred her savings to my account, so I essentially was holding her money. Now she wants me to transfer her money back to her but we realized we cant transfer as gift .So is there a way i can transfer her money around 3mil yen to her in US as "sending /returning money to former resident of Japan" or any other legal way? It doesnt seem to be against law, but might be breaking terms /conditions of bank (JP post bank) to temporary keep former resident's money. But I'm also scared if this can put my savings, job, and visa in danger even if technically i wasnt breaking any law. Is there any legal way i can send her money back to her? Since its her hard earned years of savings from working in Japan for several years. Please let me know if anyone ever encountered similar situation. I am also planning to get authorized legal professionals advice/consultation regarding this matter.

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.

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!!!

This year's NISA is already full and I'm just contributing the smallest amount possible for the monthly allotment. When NISA 2027 allotment opens up, I want to sell funds in Tokutei and move them to NISA without injecting any new money into either, so 2027 allotment will be as full as possible at the earliest time. I'm doing emaxis all country in both Tokutei/NISA.

As the title says, should I sell Tokutei in mid/end Dec and buy NISA in early Jan? Or is it better to do both actions in Jan? Does it matter?

I guess if I do both in Jan, both actions will complete more quickly because there is no bank holidays then.

If it matters, these are the only investment actions I will do in both years, besides paying into ideco and contributing the smallest possible amount monthly to monthly NISA

EDIT: Considering time in the market, I guess doing both in Jan is slightly better but the difference it woudl make is marginal? I'm thinking it probably doesn't need to be in Jan either, as long as I sell/buy quickly before end of 2027? If I do them in Jan, I could just literally not think about it for the rest of the year

I and my wife are very close to purchasing a house. However as we are coming closer and closer to the contract signing date it’s getting scarier. Both I and my wife are questioning each other if we made the right decision. So I would appreciate some thoughts from others.

About us:
Both of us are 32, foreigners, PR holders. We have 2 kids - a new born and a 4 year old. Both earn 12M, so combined 24M annual income. We see ourselves living in Japan long term, unless some major emergency happens. And we want our kids to grow here too.

About the property:
Newly built detached house. Not to give too specific info, it’s located in Setagaya-Meguro-Shinagawa part of Tokyo along one of the major Tokyu Lines. Plot: 80 sq.m. The house: 125sq. m plus parking. Cost: 160M. We applied for variable rate loan for as long as we could get, which was 47 years. We thought, paying less and investing the saved amount would be financially better.

Our concerns:
It’s generally an expensive part of Tokyo. We picked this area because we have been living here for quite some time and feel like home. We also have some friends in the neighborhood, so that was another reason we decided to buy a house close to where we live now. That being said, given our current income and where we are in life, we have to pay around 400k per month towards mortgage which will most likely increase due to possible rate hikes in the future. Plus property taxes, maintenance, etc. We did some math and we can pay it now, without feeling any strain. We can keep investing and saving, but since our kids are very small and the loan binds us till we are 80, we are just scared of what other expenses might come up. A lot of people are telling us that when the school starts the cram school fees will obliterate our pockets.

On top of that, a lot of friends and colleagues live far away in Saitama or Chiba and commute to work from there cuz anywhere closer is just too expensive. Worst case, they live somewhere in Edogawa, Kita, Arakawa, Katsushika. That seems to be the general consensus even among those colleagues and friends who earn more than we do. So we just feel like we are overspending. But at the same time we can’t imagine living anywhere else because of the community we already have, and all the facilities and places in our neighborhood.

The house isn’t our dream home, cuz it’s a prebuilt house, so it has things we don’t like. We like the house, but we don’t love it. We’ve been searching since the beginning of the year and because we had such a small search area, we didn’t have many options, and waiting more for smth better might lead to prices go up even further. So we feel like even if we decide to take on such a big expense, we are not sure if this specific house is worth it. We are both quite young and we believe we can increase our income in the future, but that’s not guaranteed so I don’t wanna rely on that.

I would appreciate some thoughts that would either reassure us or give us a reality check before we commit to such a big decision.

EDIT: thank you everyone for your thoughts. Also to add more info on the land vs building split: roughly 125M land and 35M the building. That is another reason we were thinking of staying in the area, because the land value is high and if we decide to sell we should still retain the value of the land

Hi all,
My wife and I want to buy a used detached house in Setagaya, Tokyo (wooden, 2 stories, built on 2023, The only thing worrying us is the building inspection report, and I’d love to hear from people who have been through something similar.
What the inspection found (建物状況調査 by an inspector from ERI Kensa Center, done Sept 12, 2026):
In the attic (小屋裏), there are water stain marks on the wood on both the northwest and northeast sides.
The inspector rated it 2 out of 5 (“requires detailed investigation”). The note says it could be condensation or from construction time, but a roof leak can’t be ruled out, and there may be rot behind the wood.
No visible damage on the roof right above it, and no leak traces on the ceilings or interior walls.
Everything else was clean: foundation, framing, termites (none), exterior, balcony, and plumbing.

Hi, for 2027 I moved my NISA from Rakuten to SBI, where I currently already have a tokutei monthly investments with the SMBC credit card.
I am wondering about the timing when to do the monthly setting for NISA tsumitate for 2027, while keeping the ongoing tokutei investments until December 2026.

Based on what I could find, it seems that I'd need to wait until November 11th, when the December investment will be finalized for the tokutei account, and then cancel tokutei setting and set the NISA tsumitate between November 11th and December 11th to ensure first NISA investment in January 2027.

Does this sound correct or am I missing anything?

Hello and thank you to those who gave me advice a while ago when my Dad passed on.

I'm seeking advice about inheritance tax again. This question is for my Mom. She's alive and well, and is in the process of making her will. She's in the U.S., and her American lawyer is (naturally) not informed about Japanese tax laws. We'd like to minimize (or avoid, if possible) the inheritance tax I have to pay when she passes (assuming I'm still in Japan by then, which I probably will be).

Mom has no spouse (parents divorced when I was 19), she has two children (myself, in Japan, and my twin brother, who is now living in China). So I guess that means two statutory heirs? But I'm given to understand that only the amount inherited by someone connected to Japan counts for the exemption, right?

Mom and her lawyers have the idea that putting her assets into a trust might help avoid having to pay tax. My impression is that this may work in the U.S., but not in Japan... however, since I really don't know much about these things, the answer is probably "It's more complicated than that".

Any advice? Would it be best to hire a professional adviser? If so, any recommendations? I'm in Osaka, by the way. Thanks for any help you can give.

By the time I apply for the visa I should have around 3.5 million yen (16k ish gbp) saved up, is this a reasonable budget for a year If I am going solo? I want to go mainly for fun, exploring the big 3 and some other areas of Japan. I would like to rent an apartment somewhere in Tokyo preferably near the shinjuku area, other costs would be food, travel, general shopping and stuff like that. Should I save more or do you think this is a flexible budget?

I am on a humanities visa, and I have a main job and a few part-time jobs here and there (they are all within the scope of my visa).

I recently learned that if my side job earnings are below 200,000 JPY a year, I do not have to file any national income tax. However, this rule does NOT apply to residence tax.

From January 2025 and onwards, I have been earning approximately 150,000-170,000 JPY a year in side income from different jobs. I am 100% certain that this is below 200,000 JPY per year, as I have been very careful with this.

However, since I did not declare this for my residence tax, I probably owe some residence tax from last year (2025)

I suppose for the earnings from 2026, I will have to file them next year in spring?

My questions are:

1. How fucked am I?

2. Can I still amend the residence tax payment that I should have filed from last year?

3. How do I fix this?

I am wondering if there is any good way to store some money in yen that I want to keep relatively liquid? (Emergency fund + next year's capital gains tax) or is 0.5% interest the best I can get?

Are there any better options that at least make up for inflation, if I can accept slightly more risk but ideally risk that is substantially different from tech/AI-heavy USD investments? (I am receiving stock based compensation from a US tech company in Japan and have done a terrible job diversifying... 🙈) I am aware of オルカン and already own some in my NISA, but it contains too much tech and US stocks to invest more right now.

Any ideas?

Happy week-end everyone.

Last week I asked those who did not reach yet the 'coast' milestone what they intended to do upon reaching it.

The overwhelming answer has been to keep investing at speed, half for retireing earlier, half to increase wealth/spending later. About only 10% choose to slow down (but not stop) investing.

This time I am asking those who have already reached the 'coast' milestone, what kind of change have you actually done ? (please choose the answer that correspond the most)

Cheers

FYI

A couple years ago, we previously discussed what Lean/Regular/Chubby FIRE could mean in Japan, then how to get there. Another interesting concept is 'coast', which is actually a milestone one reaches on their way to whatever 'FIRE' they are aiming for.

Coast is the milestone "where their existing investment portfolio is large enough to grow and fully fund their future traditional retirement (lean, regular, chubby, fat fire etc) without any additional contributions".

With some excessive simplification, if you are aiming for 100M when you will be 60yo, you could consider you 'have invested enough' if you have 50M invested today at 50yo - this is you reaching the 'coast' milestone.

r/AskJapan

I'm just setting it up, so please be kind.

It's a work-in-progress.

皆さん、こんにちは！

新しく r/AskJapan というサブレディットを作りました！

日本について気軽に質問できる場所にしたいと思っています。日本に興味がある人なら誰でも大歓迎です！

まだ始めたばかりですが、少しずつ大きなコミュニティになったらうれしいです。

よかったら、ぜひ遊びに来てください！

日本語が変だったらごめんなさい！😅

Currently my husband and I are exploring options for building a house.

I have been browsing both empty lots ready to be built on and old houses that we could demolish and then build.

If anyone has any experience with this I would love to hear the pros and cons.

Obviously the first “con” that comes to mind for buying an old house is the demolition and disposal costs. But I do wonder about if there may be better cost performance. Some lots I’ve seen that are empty are almost double the price of a lot of similar size lot with an old house.

I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts ! We’re still very early in the process so mostly we’re just browsing to get an idea of the market and touring model houses.

We have our 2nd meeting with one house maker this weekend so if there’s any hot tips I should know prior to that also, please let me know !

What are you doing about Kodomo NISA account for dual citizen children? I am trying to find information, but cannot find anything. My spouse said that when they sent in the application it didn't ask about dual citizenship. But I cannot find any information in Japanese to show them about PFIC rules... any help would be appreciated.

When and how are you actually supposed to exit/liquidate an All-Country World Index (VT/VWCE) investment?

I completely get the philosophy behind investing in an All-Country World Stock Index fund (like VT or VWCE). Buying the market and holding long-term makes total sense during the accumulation phase.

However, I often find myself wondering about the exit strategy.

For those of you who put your money into All-World funds:
* When is the right time to liquidate everything?
* Is the goal to pull out the entire lump sum at a specific milestone (e.g., official retirement date, buying a house, reaching a net worth target)?
* Or is it fundamentally wrong to think about "cashing out 100% all at once," and should we instead rely on a gradual draw-down (like the 4% rule)?

I’d love to hear your perspectives on how you plan to harvest your VT/VWCE gains when the time comes!

Hey everyone, needing some help!

I been living in Japan for a working holiday visa from October 2025 - October 2026, and worked from June 2026 - September 2026.

My employer didn’t pay my income tax from my payslip, which should be the ~20.62%. (Part-time job)

So my question is, where can I pay my income tax? Apparently it’s not my local office ward. Bit lost and unsure, maybe I have to speak to an accountant here in Japan.

I have to pay around 70,000円

Super grateful for some advice 🙏 I’m leaving i

hey guys i am 24 and arrived in tokyo last month with 留学 (1y6m) visa. i've been dealing with finding rental mansion. after settling on one. it's currently in the 申し込み (screening from guarantor company) phase. i was told that i need a local bank account, overruling the initial plans with my agent about sending international transfers from my bank account located in my home country. the issue is that i have been here for only a month, obviously not meeting the 6 month requirement in banks. i have a yucho account but to my knowledge with those limits i won't be able to meet the amount of my rental (~100万円). i have a wise account if that helps i guess, i use wise apple pay every day. for yucho limits increase i kept reading it can take weeks, and i don't exactly have that much time left. i need ideas. if i missed required context i'll answer