RetireJapan Tokyo Event

It was SO much fun (for me)


Yesterday was a huge day for RetireJapan. We had our first independently-organized event.

40 people came out to the very cool Impact Hub Tokyo in Meguro on a rainy Sunday afternoon for three hours of talking about personal finance and investing in Japan.


It was great to meet everyone and field questions: I even learned a few things. Best of all, I saw what a great community we are building here.

None of it would have happened without Paul, who not only proposed holding an event in Tokyo, he helped organize it, provided his fantastic event management site, and even ran around on the day providing tea, setting up chairs, and doing reception for the event.

So a huge thank you to Paul, a huge thank you to Impact Hub Tokyo, and a huge thank you to everyone that came out.


If you weren’t able to attend this time, worry not. Based on how well things went this time, I think we’ll be organizing more events, both in Tokyo and elsewhere.

If you think your city could do with a RetireJapan event and you are willing to act as the local organizer, please get in touch 🙂
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10 Responses

  1. Hello Ben
    Thanks for coming all the way down to Tokyo just to give that great talk.
    It was an immense pleasure to finally be able to meet you in person!
    Learnt many new things as well, even though the original intention was to show moral support =)
    The biggest personal takeaway was that it is still very much the Wild West here in Tokyo, especially with regards to long term foreign residents investing for their financial security.
    So much so that there is a strong compulsion to try and make things right, one individual at a time, at the very through financial literacy education or perhaps eventually providing professional advisory services someday 😉
    Hopefully with a better informed populace, the less than savoury “financial planners” will be forced to step up their game and adhere to fiduciary standards.

  2. Congratulations. I don’t believe I received an invite to the event. If so, sorry I missed it. When is the next event?
    Best,
    Marc

  3. Hi Desmond
    Thanks for coming to the talk! Lots of people were happy to meet you 🙂
    As for setting up an ethical advisor service, I think that would be great. A future project perhaps?

  4. Hi Marc
    Sorry about that. There was a post on the blog about it, and I mentioned it several times on Facebook.
    There’s a thin line between making sure everyone knows about something and annoying people by mentioning it over and over again 🙂
    Not sure about future events right now, but they will be announced on the blog. The best way to make sure you never miss a post is to sign up for the weekly digest email (signup form at the bottom of the main page).

  5. Thank you Ben,
    It was a worthwhile trip from Ibaraki.
    I was the one a few rows back who asked a question about being a small business. I formally retired a few years ago and no longer have an office or full-time position. As a part-time language instructor I had heard that I can declare my house, car, clothing, etc. as tax write-offs. I was pleasantly surprised to hear from attendees that they were doing so.
    Martin

  6. Hi Martin
    Yes, as a self-employed (or freelance) person, you have a lot of with taxes.
    You might want to:
    1. talk to the tax office and ask them what you should do (they tend to be very helpful)
    2. take a look at some of the links on this site
    3. stay tuned for a tax post on RetireJapan 🙂

  8. Hi Ben,
    I live in Kyoto so was not able to attend, but I would be very interested in attending an event in this area if you decide to do something in the future. I am a financial beginner and have just finished reading the ‘Millionaire Teacher’ which was a great recommendation I picked up on this site – Thank-you! I have just started ‘The Global Expatriate’s Guide to Investing’ by the same author. I am trying to educate myself before making any decisions about what/how/where to invest so I am sure I will lots of questions in the near future.
    There are also a lot of people around me who have questions too, so please do consider an event in this area if possible.
    Jane

  9. Hi Jane,
    thanks! That’s really encouraging. There has been a lot of interest in
    a Kansai event, so I think we’ll do one at some point. I’ll definitely put it on the blog if it gets closer to fruition.
    Hint: someone volunteering to be local coordinator and help us find a venue would definitely speed up the process 😉