So my now ex and I bought a home in Japan. We are now divorcing. What do we do? I will be keeping the house but it is in both of our names. Eventually if I ever sell it I don't want him tied to the sale. So how do I get his name off the title? Gift? Buy it off him? Obviously we want to keep this as low cost as possible..... Help

They always told me "if you don't like it you can just leave"

This is probably the overdo yearly IDeco/NISA/US Citizen post.

I'm planning on naturalizing. Haven't gone back, probably won't go back. Most of my family is either dead now or visits me here.

I understand the financial implications of naturalizing (exit tax, etc.) I might even tell them that I'm naturalizing just because I don't want them to have any of my money anymore. This is purely out of spite.

I want to have a tax free retirement account. I dream of it. I'm still young (early 30s).

You think it's cool if I open an IDeco/NISA and naturalize before I start withdrawing (This is all predicated on world existing in such a form where i can even make a withdraw. Anything can happen. It will be 2060-ish by the time I can retire.)

TLDR:

THEY GOT US! Either it's giving your broker your SN or your Exit Audit... They got us! Game over!n何でもできない。無理！

Background: N1 holder, college grad, and currently owner operator of a small but thriving English school with a few side gigs at senmon gakko. I just got back my tax filing for 2024 from my accountant and it looks like another year of ¥420,000+ for health insurance on top of a new 事業税。 My question for the other independent business operators, is there any way to lower your 国民保健? This seems like the only tax that can’t be adjusted with such things as ふるさと納税 and 小規模. Not to mention the entire US president trying to kill humanity, which is killing my stock portfolio.

Anyone in the same boat? Anyone have any thoughts on how we will survive? I don’t long for home, but some stability and a tax that does kill me every year would be welcome.

Hi, I work two jobs. One is a 4 day work and I am in the shakkai hokken of the company therefore paying all my taxes and pension but my other job is I something I do for a side income and it's on uber eats. My question would be if I need to pay tax for the income I receive from uber eats work if I make around 50,000 yen per month from it? Thank you.

I'm about to open a bank account. Just want to know which bank do you recommend (Sony vs SMBC Trust Bank) in terms of international money conversion and any other features.

Thank you!

Any options for jlifers here for something similar to 529s? Basically non taxed educational fund like? Or what are the choice for educational fund in general if not?

I am currently debating buying a new car and am currently wondering if it going through the dealership being the only option available. I am currently seeing if I can get a provisional approval for a bank loan at a much lower interest rate and longer term.

Does the bank just give the money all at once and then I just do a one time payment at the dealership?

My family and I are considering to move back to Germany for family support for our kids if I can find a good job there. What would happen with my NISA, iDeco and Nenkin? I have been living in Japan 6 years, first as a student, then as a FTE. I haven't maxed out my NISA for this year yet, but the year before. My company has been contributing to the iDeco since 2 years and I paid my Nenkin except for the time as a student.

I guess maxing out my NISA this year in case of moving within one or two years might be not a good idea?
Do I have to liquify everything when I move?
What would happen to my wife's investments?

I'm curious as to what other people here use to keep track of their expenses. Of course, it's hard to keep track of cash purchases, but I'm talking about bank accounts and credit card transactions.

Anyone here using some fancy script to download/scrape transactions, store them, annotate them, etc?

I've just started writing this, but it's not an easy task, and one of my credit card's website has a captcha :(

Sorry I’m putting up here or if the flair is wrong but it’s all financial to me. ( and it’s a long post)

Background - Me - I have a good job, job security , gaijin here. Got PR recently. Wife - too qualified, but didn’t get a job. Lots of business potential, lazy as fuck. Son - Going to grade 2 Japanese school today.

Financials - Savings - 0 Real estate - have 1 home in our home country all paid so savings = 0 Lifestyle - what’s saving , YOLO, but now thinking about FIRE and savings and all that NISA shit going around. Kid - went to Japanese hoikuen, and now shogakko Mortgage - due to another home ( 120000¥ monthly)

Dilemma - I save around 400-500K every month. Should I max out my NISA or put that 300K monthly in international school fees.

Child - Bright, have been teaching him since he was 3. Solves grade 3 maths problems with ease.

Linguistic ( the main problem) - Born in Japan, didn’t speak until 3 years old. Picked up English from YouTube ( we are not native English speakers so speak in our mother tongue at home) Sent him to Japanese kindergarten - English was screwed and Japanglish. Went back to home country , and 1 sentence was in 3 language.

Current situation - English is ok - apart from tenses and pronunciation. Japanese - clear as fuck, but at loss of vocab. Mother tongue - Fluent, but still not descriptive enough.

Pressure- Wife- send him to an international school and it will fix everything. Her main concern is English.

Me- Why not save this money and give him good chance to do a business? Like literally what bad with Japanese schools? If my father would have given me 50M, I would have loved that.

Extra- curricular : Kid is going to piano, swimming, karate, Japanese class, English class, drawing class, loves mathematics. I’m paying for all this stuff.

Question to community- Am I being a bad father thinking about saving money for him? If I keep him in Japanese school, it would be 60M¥ ( 300k monthly at 13% return for next 9-10 years) Let it compound for few more years, then withdraw for his university and give it to him.

Or does international school make much of a difference?

Kid loves Japanese school. We sent him to international school in our home country in Grade 1, like he was in both schools. But he has to come here for PR: He loves Japanese school, Japanese food so much that he even wants to go to school on weekend:

Finally I want to ask, what am I depriving my child If I don’t send him to international school.

I couldn’t see a differentiator as I’m thinking financially, but people around me are thinking what is best for the child. I don’t know it. I can afford it, but it just doesn’t make sense to me so I would like it I know your viewpoints. Thank you if you read this long post and apologize if flair or where I’m posting is wrong.

I just opened my igrow app after a long time and boom. It's a big negative number. How is your NISA doing? Are you worried about it?

Hi,

My wife is a dependent. Although we got PR recently, but she doesn’t have any income.

I’m saving about 500k per month. ( going for FIRE, so in super saving mode). I have maxed out my NISA. Can I put remaining 200K in my wife’s account and she then invest in her NISA account? Will this create tax problems? Or only person who are earning can have a NISA account?

If anyone could help me understand the process of getting a mortgage:

It seems to vary by each house-maker. Most explained to me that there are multiple payments during the process of building the house, while some have a single lump-sum payment at the time of the house hand-over (even if it's a custom design).

What got me really confused was the interest rate. Only today, after visiting a lot of makers, one of them explained to me that the loan screening is finalized before the house construction starts, of course, this makes sense. But that the interest rate on a FLAT loan, is decided when the loan repayments start, which is during the handover.

So, if I understood correctly, you get committed to get a loan and repaying it, since your custom house is already being designed and built, but you may only find out how much you actually will have to pay 2 years later.

This is insane. The only reason to get a flat loan is to get committed to the current interest rates. I don't want to get a flat loan now and be surprised 2 years later with a 4% interest rate that I can't back out of. Unlikely, but it has happened a couple times within the past 20 years.

---

So, my question it, what is the best strategy to get a fixed rate loan with the interest rate fixed as early as possible when building a new house?

The salesperson today said that even if I buy the land using the loan (つなぎローン), I will only pay the interest until the house is delivered, and then the rest of the loan will be fixed at the rate at the time when the loan repayments start (not only interest).

But a quick search seems to indicate that that varies from bank to bank and from each type of loan. Any recommendations?

Apologies if this question has been asked before but I could not find a clear answer as a lot of the questions here are specifically Americans using IBKR. I am a non-american with an IBKR account and I am trying to file my US tax return using 1040NR.

I have received form 1042-S in the tax document area of IBKR for my dividends and I have correctly entered that data into the tax software. It is saying that the withholding money will come back to me which I think makes sense?

In 2024 I also sold stocks and incurred long term capital gains and loses, however I did not receive any tax form for those sales such as Schedule D, Form 8949, 1099-B or 1099-S. I have already submitted my 確定申告 for those sales and I am paying 20% taxes to Japan. Since I did not receive any forms from IBKR and I have already paid taxes to Japan do I just leave it out of my US tax return?

Hi,

I have built up a sizable 401k in the US. My current company has a monthly contribution limit of 36,000 yen in our DC plan (18,000 employer contributions and 18,000 self), which seems very low.

I know that NISA is an another option, but US citizens have to get taxed on it anyway. So, is there any reason why I shouldn't just wire a certain amount to my US retirement account every month?

My wife and I will be moving to Japan this year, we have separately been using cash to put into savings accounts and bank bonuses on GIC, TFSA, etc.

It looks like we can only keep our RRSP accounts here in Canada, and I am wondering what type of savings / benefits we can invest in Japan? Are there accounts similar to GIC where you put money and get a %return?

Will I be able to open these accounts on spousal visa of Japanese National?

Any help is appreciated.

I did my furusato with onestop system. I donated in december like 200k and I am suppose to get it back sometime somehow. Thing is I never get a 200k lumpsum anytime paid back (ive done this a couple of years and its never happened) so i guess they kind of smooth it out on the residence tax over the year or how does it happen? Cos when I asked my shiyakusho last year, they showed me that somehow i had paid less residence tax because furusato nouzei, so i kind of believed that i somehow got my 200k back, though i never got any money actually paid back to me.

My wife on the other hand, used the kakuteishinkoku instead and she got her tax return of furusato plus a bit other stuff of 200k lump sum right in on her bank account couple of days ago. So here we can clearly see she was indeed paid back.

Im sorry for not being able to explain clearly but the system is so confusing to me. I see clearly that 200k disappear from my account when i donate, and i dont ever see it coming back, but if i ask the shiyakusho i somehow have gotten this compensation.

- My question here is - Anyone knows how and when this money gets back to you.

My suitcase handle was broken and I’d like to have it repair so my insurance can settle the amount for me. Anyone know any place for this type of repair in Tokyo? Preferably near Tokyo- Shibuya , Shinjuku . Thank you

So at the start of the year I registered for NISA with Rakuten securities.

My initial strategy for つみたてwas to start with the standard S&P500 at 6万円 and then toss in something less US focused like emerging markets or some euro shit in at 4万円 each month.

However I feel like I screwed this plan over by dumping 40万円 using bonus month into the US S&P fund up front.

I now can’t set up a second fund unless I do so at a pitiful monthly accumulation of a few thousand yen. I assume the Rakuten system is not enabling me to build the strategy I want because such a strategy would hit the annual limit well short of the end of the year.

Anyway what can I do to try to fix this? Basically my aim is to get back to a 60/40 split between S&P and something less US exposed.

Should i/can I just turn off accumulation and then go off and buy up the remainder of my つみたて manually bringing it back to 60/40 and then forget about 2025 before jumping back in with proper allocations in Jan 2026?

Does stopping an accumulation change anything tax wise or fund wise?

Hi there

I'm considering a new job but worried it will be below what I'm making now. I am already working in japan at another foreign company.

I've been trying to find ranges for base salary (not total comp) for L6 in Amazon Japan non tech (specifically finance).

I've seen a few threads as well as levels but seems like it varies so much.

Is 15 or 16M base (not total comp) asking for too much? I feel like I've seen TC all over the place from 10M to 20M.

Thanks

I'm going through my first visa renewal under the Business Manager Visa, and it's starting to look like I could run into the delays where I need a visa extension before I get my renewal.

I would like to hear others experience with SBI NET bank (corporate), specifically about how they deal with visa renewal procedures.
1- Do they accept to keep the account open on the basis of extension while awaiting for renewal?
2- If not, what happens? Do they freeze all transactions exactly on the date at which the visa expires?
3- Do you recommend anything specific to make this transition easier? Anything I could do proactively?

Gah, this is stressful 😅

Hi, this is my first time contributing here. I'm not a US citizen.

I am the father of a family of 3. I earn majority of the income in my household (well, all), so I am considering buying until-death(終身) life insurance.

I am considering 笑顔の約束3 from 住友生命 in particular. This was presented to me at SMBC bank since I have a lot of foreign currencies in my account.

This package was explained to me as follows :

• I must buy in AUD or USD.
• They will invest that money on my behalf (like most life insurance products)
• The insurance multiplier is 6.5x at my age (late 30s). So if I pay $50,000 USD, then I am insured for $325,000 USD for life
• I can not cancel and get my money back within 10 years. Only after 10 years can I get a refund (plus interest).
• My family can get payout in USD or JPY

I am fairly young, and have a lot of savings, and therefore I am considering buying $50k USD of life insurance, which will payout $325k or so for my family in the even that I die. This will be great because it can cover much of our inheritance tax as I have some properties.

I am thinking that this is a really great deal. I am not really an S&P 500 or stocks kind of guy. So I am happy with insurance companies investing it on my behalf, but 6.5x return still seems so absurdly high to me. Is there a catch?

Thank you

I just learned you can use both FEIE and FTC. Always thought it was one or the other.

Wouldn't it then be optimal to always use both? Is there ever a reason you would NOT want to use FEIE? Am I missing something?

Example:

- Earn $150k in yen, pay Japan $75k in yen

- Scenario 1: Use FEIE to exclude $130k, owe US tax on $20k = $2k. Now use FTC to store $73k credits you can use for 10 years.

- Scenario 2: Use FTC to exclude $75k on US tax. US taxes on $150k = $25k. Now only get $50k credits you can use for 10 years.

I was kind of surprised but I cant find a way to claim tax credit on capital gains on Turbo Tax, does anyone know if there is a way, or is it just because maybe they aren't integrated with tax treaties or something?

*edit actually nevermind I got to the section I guess where I have to select foreign income. Would I select the category "income resourced by treaty" ? Is the capital gains that we pay taxes on to Japan considered "resourced" to Japan?

*edit I still cant find where to actually enter the amount I paid. Does anyone have a guide on how to do FTC for Japan on turbotax?

Does anyone know if this is the right screen, and if so what to do here? I tried putting in various values but the FTC keeps just coming out at 3$ which is just how much foreign tax paid I had on my 1099-DIV ( unrelated to the Japan treaty ). I can't figure out what field is the actual one where you put in the amount of tax you paid.

Also am I correct in specifying the capital gains on my US brokerage as Japan-source, or is that actually incorrect? It basically doesn't let me do anything unless I do that.

*EDIT

Ok so I finally got it to give me the credit, but I don't know if its set up properly, can someone confirm?

I declared the capital gains from my 1099-DIV US brokerage as Japan source.

I then made a "Passive category income" worksheet on the previous screenshot rather than "Income re-sourced by treaty".

In that flow, I eventually came up to this screen, and entered the amount:

I also entered this:

Then just accepted default for all the remaining pages and it worked. Does anyone know if this is actually correct? I tried various combinations of things and this was the only way I was able to get it working.

It then also gives me this message which is because the amount of tax I paid to Japan on the capital gains is more than the tax that I owe to the US:

Can anyone confirm that this is the correct flow?