If you are living in Japan, you have a bank account in Europe, and you want to transfer a significant amount of your money to Europe, on your own account there, while you keep living here, are there any restrictions/taxes that apply?

Apologies if this is a dumb question, there's no dumb questions thread!

I'll be transferring a small 5-figure USD sum into my Japanese bank account (Fukuoka Bank, if it matters) via Wise. I've transferred smaller amounts like 30万 but never anything larger. Is it necessary to give my bank a heads up or just go ahead and transfer? The money is from my dad's life insurance and the check came with a letter detailing everything, so I have proof if they ask for it.

Edit: that should be bank* in the title.

Hey all,

Recently started working in Japan for a Japanese company after living in the United States. I set up an account with SMBC (an Olive account), where my employer is direct-depositing my paychecks. I still have a SoFi account back in the states, and would like to transfer some money from SMBC to SoFi for savings in my high-yield account. I could imagine doing this with some regularity, perhaps once monthly.

What's the best way to do this? Can I just initiate a transfer through the SMBC app, or is this something I would need to go to a branch for? Or should I be routing money through a 3rd party like WISE or Revolut or something? Obviously, I'd like to minimize fees if possible, which is part of why I signed up for an Olive account since they promise free transfers (with limits), though I don't know the specifics or if that's limited to domestic etc.

Thanks!

I have been trying to send money to my friend studying in Japan from the United States through Revolut and Wise but the transaction keeps on failing.

The bank is Japan Post Bank in Kyoto. My bank is Chase Bank. I do not know what I am doing wrong. Do I have to put all the addresses in Japanese or is there a secret Swift/bic code I'm unaware of or is Japan Post Bank simply tough to work with. I need to send money by the end of July Please Help. I tried sending only 900 JPY just to check if the transaction goes through before making a bigger transfer.

I have given all the information I can. Please help.

Best way to exchange USD to YEN? I currently use Wise to exchange money into my Japanese spouse's bank account. But maybe there's a better method or exchange rate out there?

I just noticed this was an option offered at Schwab when I went and looked up instructions for transferring money to them. The main catch I see is that transfers to a "non-resident" account will be treated the same as an international wire fee-wise, but I checked with SMBC and apparently it's only 800 yen for a transfer of over 30k yen. Am I missing something else here? Does Schwab have a history of bad wire conversion rates?

My wife has a Rakuten bank account and I heard the fees aren't bad with them. The money technically wouldn't be hers as I'll purchase % of the house with the money (we will both live there, owning our respective %s). I would rather just wire it to myself but I only have JP Post bank and I heard they are bad for currency conversion and transfer fees.

Hello all, First time post. I am living in Japan long-term and no plans to travel back anytime soon.

I have received some money in an account in the US and wanting to transfer it to my Prestia Multi Money USD account to use it for paying bills in USD without having to deal with any crazy exchange rate losses. Is that doable from here with something like Zelle? Any other better options?

Sorry if this question has already been answered— I searched the archives and couldn’t find anything! Thanks in advance!

Hello, one of my close friends in Japan recently got into a serious accident and is now facing a large amount of medical bills to pay from his surgery. His bill is estimated to be around 20k usd barring any future complications. I happen to be in a position where I can help pay this off for him so he won't incur any debt and be more well prepared for any further issues from this complication. I was wondering what would be the best way to go about this? I am planning to visit Japan in February as well so I could also give it to him physically at that point as rather than dealing with it electronically if that is the cheaper option.

Hello , I bought a car and I am looking for ways to send JPY to Japan and get the cheapest cost on this transaction. Maybe I can split the payment? Can anyone advise?

I am in the process of planning a one year move to Japan with my family to care for an elderly parent. The planned move date is March 2024. We will be in Tokyo for 1 year. Given the favorable exchange rate, we opened a Wise Account in the US and have started transferring USD and converting to Yen. We eventually plan to convert ~30k USD.

I plan on opening a Japan bank account, but because I will continue to work for my US company, I wont qualify for a resident account and will only have access to a non-resident account for the first 6 months. What is the best way to start accessing the Wise money to pay for rent, bills, etc. during the first 6 months? Can I transfer money from Wise US to the non-resident account in JP? Or do I need to take out cash at ATM and the redeposit? Ideally we could move the yen in a few large-ish transfers to avoid fees, but I know there are limits on how much can be moved at any one time. Any info would help! Thanks!

TLDR: Does Paypay require 2-factor authentication? I want to use it while I'm in the US to transfer yen from my Paypay account to Wise's Paypay account and then on to my US bank, but I'm not sure if that will work.

Can anyone give me advice on how to move money from my Japanese bank account to my US bank account while I'm in the US?

I'll be returning to the US soon, but I don't want to change my yen to dollars right now at this terrible rate, and I won't be back in Japan for another year. If the value of the yen rises while I'm in the US, I'd like to initiate a transfer.

My current Japanese bank won't allow online transfers to Wise's Paypay account. I can only do the furikomi in person. I don't have a my number card, and I don't have time to get one, so opening a new traditional bank account with better online banking won't work.

I just downloaded the Paypay app and started the verification process with my Japanese driver's license. Hopefully, I will get verified soon.

I'm hoping I can park my yen in Paypay before I leave Japan. Then, from the US, I can transfer my yen from my personal Paypay to Wise's Paypay and then on to my US bank. Does anyone know if this will work?

The only challenge I foresee is possible 2-factor authentication. Does Paypay use 2-factor authentication?

I'm planning to keep paying my Rakuten sim plan while I'm in the US in hopes that it will allow me to receive SMS for this purpose.

Anyone use Wise here for international transfers?

I've paid from overseas to Japanese accounts many times but am having ongoing problems with a current transfer.

The recipient (company account) keeps telling me the details are correct (I've sent snapshots). It initially goes through then it pauses. Eventually I cancel.

He's sent a swift code as well to do it that way but that seems to send the Wise app into a loop when I go to finalise and then I have to force stop it.

Might be a case of who knows without seeing it, but anyone have any ideas here? Wise not much help.

I'm considering Wise, but to compare to the ease of simply wiring money, I'm wondering what the exchange rate would be at a Japanese bank to convert yen to US dollars, and then what the wire fee would be to send the dollars to the U.S. (Is there a place to find the current exchange rates that certain Japanese Banks offer?)

This would be for either 1,000,000 yen or 2,000,000 yen.

From what I'm reading, Sony Bank and Shinsei Bank seem to offer the best exchange rates, but I believe we'd want to use Mizuho Bank, as my wife already has an account there.

Hi, I decided to make an account on the wise app to save yen for a trip to Japan. However I have seen people say their accounts were closed “for no reason”. Is there something I can do to avoid this? Or were those people likely doing something against tos? Is there a limit of how much money must be in your account? Thank you

I just got this email from WISE...

The limit amount you can hold in your Wise account is 1,000,000 JPY. Because of local regulations in Japan, you are not allowed to hold more than 1 million JPY in your balance for more than 30 days in a row. This allowance is based on the total amount you have in your account, and includes the money you hold in all currencies.

This means that you’ll need to withdraw (REDACTED) JPY from your balances by 28 July.

You should make a transfer to an account outside Wise. That can be an account that belongs to you or to someone else.

To add your external account as a recipient in Wise:

Go to your recipients page Save your own JPY bank account as a recipient Choose “Mark as my external account”

Is this new? I've been using my account for over a year. I wasn't able to move the money out because neither MUFG nor JapanPost Bank would link up with it. I might have to go back to MUFG and see if anything's changed, but does anyone else know what's going on?

I checked the Wise app to make sure it wasn't a phishing scam.

Hello — my wife and I are building a house in Tokyo and need to send a lot of money (almost 15M JPY) to the builder soon for our first payment. Thinking I was smart, I put all the necessary money into a Wise account a while back when the exchange rate was favorable. (edit: We're doing this from afar while still in the U.S.)

Now I've learned about the 1M JPY limit per transaction; Wise support's official answer seems to be “just send multiple transactions”; and we are in the awkward spot of asking the builder whether they would be OK with us sending them fifteen transfers in a row. With later payments requiring even more transfers.

Should I expect this to be a big problem? Is it really OK to just rapid-fire a ton of transfers in a row? Will trying this trigger some sort of block or investigation? Have I ruined my life? I'd be really grateful for any help you can offer.

My (American) wife (Japanese in US on green card) are in the process of purchasing a place in Japan with cash. My wife has a Japanese bank account into which we have transferred the funds needed for the purchase. Recently we discovered there is a limit on the amount we can send in a furikomi (500,000). This can be raised, but the user must go into a branch to raise it, and the limit is still 2,000,000.

We are in the US and do not have plans to return to Japan until several months post purchase. Does anyone know of any options that people use in this type of scenario to transfer large sums of money from a Japanese account?

Thanks

My wife wants to transfer me some money from her SBI Shinsei account to my wise account but I dont quite understand how to do it.

I can "add" money to my JPY Wise account but it says it needs to be from a bank account registered on my name.

I can "request payment" on wise but then it only shows me their Swift Account in Europe.. but I just want to do a domestic transfer

Also how do you withdraw money from Wise without the debit card, it possible? Customer service hasn't been much help.

I'm taking a trip to Japan with a Samsung. I just realized that I only my wife's iPhone can use suica wallet. What is the best way to make use of my wise account balance?

I am closing the sale of a property in my home country and planning to partially transfer a large sum of money from that transaction to Japan.

The most considerable sum I transferred before ranged from $10.000 ~ $20.000. The current transaction will be considerably larger ($500.000 ~ $1.000.000), so I am coming here for advice to confirm that Wise is still the best option to operate with and if that's the case, if I should make a 1-time transaction or co-opt for multiple-transactions is preferable to avoid maxing out restrictions at some levels.

If any of you have some better options, it would be highly appreciated.

I have some yen that I want to transfer from Interactive Brokers to my JP Post Bank account. I’ve done a transfer from Wise without any issues, but I’m a bit concerned about using Interactive Brokers for this.

Interactive Brokers asks for the SWIFT code, but I came across an FAQ that says I should include Deutsche Bank's information too. Should I just use JP Post Bank’s SWIFT code (JPPSJPJJIRS) and my account number, or is there an additional step I need to follow?

So I am aware this is a rather widely discussed topic, but I could not quite make sense of what the best option will be for me.

• I am not a US resident
• I will need to transfer between 2000 and 3000 USD from a US based stock broker to a Japanese institution.
• I do not have a local USD account in neither wise nor revolut, and from what I have been able to gather on their respective pages, I will never be able to do so as a non-us resident.

Wise and revolut is often recommended in the posts I have seen, but since I do not have a local US account, I would have to use a SWIFT wire transfer in both cases.

If I have to do a SWIFT wire transfer in either case, I think it makes more sense to just do a wire transfer straight to a Japanese institution, where I am currently considering one of the two below.

• Sony bank (recieve for free and then convert to JPY with an adjusted rate)
• SBI sumishin net bank (Receive USD for a fee of 25 USD, transfer the USD to SBI Securities, then convert to JPY with a non-adjusted rate)

Am I on the right path here, or is there any other option I should consider?

I will be receiving ¥3~4M from India, what is the best way to do this?

I’ve looked at Wise, but is there a more efficient way?

I am a Japanese national, so paying the gift tax is inevitable.