The Monday Read

The Monday Read from RetireJapan

National Census Edition I just did the census online, and it was great. Piece of cake, and much easier than the paper version. Hope they keep this option in the future too. Deadline is October 7th, by the way. If you haven’t completed it yet please do -it’s important for the government to have accurate […]

Guest Post: Accidental FIRE

There is hope for all of us I’m thrilled to have something positive to post today. I think we all need some encouragement after the first nine months of 2020! Stewart Dorward, a member of the RetireJapan community, very kindly wrote a post about his coming retirement. Huge congratulations are in order and hopefully there […]

The Monday Read

Tropical storm edition There is a small shrine on an island off Oshika Peninsula in Miyagi. Every year on September 25th the head priest of the shrine hikes up the mountain and brings the god down to the temple. There is a festival and ceremony, and people come from all over Japan. They say if […]

The Monday Read

The Monday Read from RetireJapan

The Age of Suga edition So we have a new PM here in Japan. I like that he’s not an nth-generation politician. I think we should drop that lot in a lake somewhere. Otherwise I’m pretty agnostic so far. Show me the reforms! as Cuba Gooding Jr. said in that movie. This week’s links Pretty […]

TransferWise Reloaded

Not just for sending money? I’ve been a fan of TransferWise since I started using it over four years ago (we did an update about a year later). Since then I’ve used TransferWise to send money to accounts in the UK, Spain, Sweden, Singapore, and Canada. Each time it was easy, quick, and worked perfectly. […]

The Monday Read

The Monday Read from RetireJapan

Cool and wet edition I am loving these lower temperatures, although the torrential rain is getting a bit old. Can’t please me, I guess! This week’s links Pray that you never have to depend on the kindness of bureaucrats: Bread & Roses: Welfare in the Age of Climate Change I couldn’t figure out if he […]

The Monday Read

The Monday Read from RetireJapan

Typhoon Haishen edition Hope everyone is safe out there. Looks like it might get hairy in Kyushu tomorrow! This week’s links This makes a lot of sense to me: Being Fascinated Coincidentally, I started buying these in my wife’s account earlier in the year: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway buys stakes in Japan’s five leading trading […]

The Monday Read

The Monday Read from RetireJapan

Cooler temperatures prevail? Well, it is positively pleasant this evening -temperature in the mid-20s. Aaaah. I’ve had a lot of coaching requests recently. Seems like people are taking advantage of the current situation to get their finances in order. I’m a bit busy at the moment with a non-RetireJapan publishing project, but after that I […]

The Monday Read

The Monday Read from RetireJapan

Is the heat over yet? Praise be, the temperature dropped slightly yesterday and was almost pleasant today. Hopefully this will hold until that weird hot week we always get at the end of September… We’ve had our A/C on pretty much constantly this week, and I am loving the fact that it has separate temperature […]

The Monday Read

The Monday Read from RetireJapan

Hot hot hot Welcome to the new normal: masks and record-breaking temperatures. I hope everyone had a good obon week. Here are this week’s links Dirty deeds indeed: Dirty deeds done dirt cheap I really need to get around to reading this book: Learning from Rory Sutherland This is good news: Japan’s male smoking rate […]