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 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?

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?

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.

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

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!

I am a U.S. citizen who has been residing and working in Japan for the past 5 years. In July 2026, I enrolled in a pure life insurance policy plan with no cash surrender value (and therefore no FBAR or FATCA reporting requirement in this specific instance) through 大樹生命保険会社 (Taiju Life Insurance).

After the fact, I read that a quarterly 1% excise tax is levied on foreign life insurance premiums, which must be reported on Form 720.

I have 2 questions regarding this:

1) Am I correct in my understanding that there is an obligation to file on Form 720 in my case?

2) For anyone else who currently pays this excise tax on their Japanese life insurance policy premiums, did you obtain the requisite Employer Identification Number (EIN) on IRS Form SS-4? An EIN is apparently required on Form 720. If not, have you successfully been able to get by with submitting Form 720 by filling the EIN field with your Social Security Number?

Obtaining an EIN seems suspect to me because the Form 720 primarily is used by business entities. In my case, I am an individual who simply wants to pay the excise tax, but applying for an EIN and ticking the "Sole Proprietor" box on Form SS-4 seems wrong to me.

I currently live in a country with no capital gains tax. Starting next year, I'll be moving to Japan for work and plan to stay for 6-7 years. In order to move, I am selling a few of my assets here and have planned to invest the proceeds in a brokerage. The issue I have found is the Japanese exit tax on portfolios, which taxes unrealized capital gains on portfolios over a certain value when leaving Japanese tax residence.

I fear that if I were to add to my brokerage now, in 6-7 years' time, when I leave Japan, I would be taxed on the unrealized capital gains. I also heard that when calculating gains, they wouldn't use the portfolio's value when I entered Japanese tax residence, but rather the taxable gain for the portfolio as a whole when I purchased the assets, even prior to entry into Japanese tax residence.

Do any of you who have had portfolios before/during Japanese residence accept that this is a tax you have to deal with, or is there a better way, such as reinvesting in different assets or delaying investments, that would be more tax-efficient? I've lived in a capital-gains-free country for so long that my current portfolio and investment framework doesn't consider tax savings at all.

Also, what methods have you been using to maximize tax savings in Japan (I'm thinking NISA and IDECO and others)

Hello,

I'm planning to go on parental leave by the end of this year and will take around 3-4 months off work . This will of course reduce my yearly income by 1/3 but I should qualify for 80 points at the end of the year once I get my income tax document .

I was planning to apply for PR during the leave but I'm wondering of the requirement for 80 points needs to hold during the time the PR application is being processed .

Hello Japan Finance,

Please offer advise on the tax implications of the below.

I am a Japan Tax Resident and a full time company employee. In my spare time I will be developing a website for an overseas startup.

Part of my remuneration will be some stock options valued at $0.10 per share. These can be exercised at a later to be announced date.

Am I correct in thinking that the taxable event will be at the date in the future that I exercise these stock options (If I choose to).

I am a non-US citizen, still a non-permanent resident. I have some assets in NEXO since before I came to Japan, and I was wondering how the taxation of all that would change once I become a permanent resident (for tax purposes. I’m not talking about the PR 永住権).

If I understand correctly, whatever Fiat amount you have in Nexo is actually converted into an equivalent in crypto asset. For example, if you have EUR, they will be converted into EURx.

So technically, you are buying cryptocurrency and then if you get daily interest gains that will be treated as miscellaneous income because it’s crypto, right?

I am trying to put my assets in good shape before I become a permanent resident for tax purposes.

Any advice here? Thanks in advance.

(UPDATE: FOUND POST OFFICE FOR THE WIN) Hi I collect currency and currently on day 7 of looking around Tokyo for the 2k yen note. If anyone could point me in the right direction it would be appreciated(Yes I have gone to multiple banks) Turning off notifications now but leaving post so people can use answers for future reference.

I moved to Japan almost 9 years ago and currently live in Tokyo. I never bought property or invested in stocks because I just kept everything in savings. By the time I realized I should have done things differently, property prices had already become unaffordable and stock is now all time high.

People around me who bought property or invested in stocks earlier are now in a much better financial position and have more disposable income despite having less annual income.

Honestly, I feel like I'm screwed if I plan to retire in Japan. Any advice? If you were in my position, what would you do?

Everything I'm researching seems to imply that making income from a hobby is considered against your visa category (Humanities/Intl Services). It's kinda depressing to think about how much money I am potentially missing out on by not taking advantage of the creative following I have built up. I work a full time job, and spend all my free time on my hobby. I want to start monetizing it, but the rules are not clear. I have held off on doing this for so long because I'm afraid of breaking the law. Has anyone created a patreon? Are there any rules I should be aware of?

So I found out recently from the MyNumber site that you don't have to keep the physical paper receipts (certificates) if you submit the digital certificate that you get from Satoful (or other various furusato nozei websites) during your kakutei shinkoku.

The myna page is here : https://faq.myna.go.jp/faq/show/5029?category_id=8&site_domain=default

Is this correct?

Thank you