Questions?

We may have answers


Just a quick post today, as I’m leaving for Nagoya in a few minutes.

I would love to hear your questions. Questions about personal finance in Japan. Questions about products. Questions about investing. Pretty much anything you are curious about.

This could help me in three ways:

  1. I may end up putting it into my workshops at JALT2016 this weekend
  2. I may be able to answer them directly, or write a blog post about them
  3. They may give me ideas for things to research

I’m behind on a couple of things: still need to go in and talk to the pension office -I finally found my pension book so this one is getting closer), and after talking to Softbank the other day I am almost ready to cancel my mobile contract and go with an MVNO (stay tuned!), but the site is always looking for new story ideas.

Running RetireJapan is a lot of fun, but only because of the members of our community. I’ve learned a huge amount from comments and Forum posts, and look forward to continuing to do so going forward 🙂

So, any questions?

12 Responses

  1. Always look forward to your Monday mails. They are extremely informative and impartial. I have talked about to you earlier about a few things which I would like to discuss in a forum.
    In no particular order,
    Japanese state pension, I virtually no nobody in the expat community apart from university full timers who are members of it, is it really worth joining and what are the back payments like?
    But to let in the U.K. ( the one about japan was really informative)
    Good deals for life insurance in Japan and the different types on offer in Japan .
    Incorporating your school in Japan, is it worth doing? And what is the process?
    Are there really any good deals available to be had with the expat off shore investments that widely considered to be a rip off?
    Gareth

  2. I have a question. I’m reading “The Millionaire Teacher” now, and he talks about putting money in index fund stocks and bonds. He lists “local” stock market index funds, “international” stock market index funds, and index bonds. How would you go about setting these accounts up in Japan? All of my money is in yen, and I have no US bank account.

    1. Hi Ryan
      Great question! Fortunately that’s not too difficult 🙂
      First you need to decide where you are going to put your investments. Are you a US citizen? If so it will restrict your options a little.

      2. Hi Ryan
        As a US citizen you will face some complications due to the IRS. The most important is that I understand it is unwise for US citizens to own foreign-domiciled mutual funds.
        So, you have a few options:
        1. open an account with a broker in Japan (Rakuten, SBI, etc.) and invest in US stocks and ETFs. You could also open a NISA account.
        2. open an account with Interactive Brokers and invest in US stocks and ETFs
        I recommend posting a question in the Forum, as more people will see this there and you can get specific advice on products

  3. Hello Ben,
    I have a broader question, which could probably be the topic of a separate blog post:
    What are the tax “traps” for foreigners in Japan?
    I’m thinking about e.g. the inheritance tax, which is applicable even if somebody inherits something at home ( https://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/death-and-taxes-new-inheritance-rules-on-foreign-assets ); partly related to that, the obligation to declare all assets if their value exceeds 50M JPY; the fact that if you want to get back your pension contributions, there’s a cap on the amount you can get back; etc.
    So basically everything that can be unexpected and can affect negatively foreigners, while they live in Japan for a limited amount of time, or even after they leave the country.
    It would be very useful to know what we should be careful with, and what we can expect.
    Thank you very much in advance!

  4. Some great suggestions.
    “Good deals for life insurance in Japan and the different types on offer in Japan”
    ^^^This would be very interesting, but a huge job I think!
    It seems like a total jungle of products out there. My wife and I are just about to enroll in a plan for our daughter (although I’ve managed to persuade her to invest half of the intended money in a NISA instead).
    Tax issues, and also Ryan Davis’s question about setting up accounts are also both of great interest.

  5. I think that currency is an issue that people ignore and deserves more thought and discussion. People planning to be here long term might want to consider keeping more money in yen. It seems to hold its value well and has appreciated against most currencies. Change into British pounds and you see substantial losses over the long term. Additionally, you may need to to bring the money back to Japan in the future and would need to explain/document where it came from in the first place. Financial advisers will of course recommend changing yen into other currencies and investing. If you make a loss on those funds or they increase in value by just a few percent, your gains can be wiped out by currency isses. The preson above who writes about keeping all savings in yen might have made a safe move. After all, if you buy a house, need to pay school fees or the like, you’ll be needing yen. To suceed at switching currencies you need to be going into funds that are really making money. Regrettably, most fiunds do not. When I first came here a british pound was worth 300 yen, in recent weeks it has been as low as 120.

    1. Hi Stuart
      That is a really good point. My take on currency is that it depends on your future plans and your view of the future.
      I think I will stay in Japan, but I am not sure.
      I think the yen will be weaker in the future, but I am not sure.
      For me, I like to use outcome matrices:
      1. Yen in strong
      2. Yen is weak
      A. I stay in Japan
      B. I leave Japan
      1A good outcome
      2A bad outcome
      1B good outcome
      2B catastrophic outcome
      This is why I choose to keep some of my money in foreign currencies. I might be wrong, but that shouldn’t lead to a catastrophic outcome.
      I think it’s good for everyone to think this through though 🙂

    2. Well, it really depends when you change into pounds, doesn’t it? I changed quite a bit at the time of Lehman’s crash and again a few weeks ago when the pound hit 125 again. Theoretically that money would be worth a lot more in yen now if I were to change it back. Indeed a 10% increase in a month or so as the pound is now 144 yen as I type. You’re right about the currency issues being very important , but it is, I think, very hard to know which currency will be stronger in the future. Since 2000 the pound has been as high as 250 yen and as low as 118, so there has been potential for big gains and losses both ways. I do keep most of savings in yen, but often wonder what is really best!