RetireJapan

The only benefit I see of remaining a US citizen is having the option to move back there if absolutely necessary for some reason Not American myself, but that is a big reason for me -options. I have been here 20+ years now, half my life spent here including virtually all my adult life. I was riding...

The purpose of inheritance tax is to prevent the rich (and if your estate is 300 million+ in Japan you are rich) from compounding their wealth over generations. I might get “rich” on my own, but I’ve also got this nice problem coming eventually as an heir. I’m not sure how I could wisely spend so m...

northSaver wrote: ↑Sat Mar 15, 2025 1:04 pm Just a bit worried what will happen if/when Trump imposes tariffs on Japan.

Hopefully it will lead to cheaper rice product availability here in Japan?

1) For high income earners I gather there is advantage in forming a company, and paying business tax, rather than paying the nose bleed top rates of personal income tax? I gather one’s income has to get upwards of something like 18 or 20 million before it becomes a viable option. (I have long been i...

Oh yeah if you don’t bring the money to Japan for five years after becoming tax resident in Japan you may not need to pay tax to Japan over that period…

Thank you for this. In a nutshell, the 20.315 rate only applies to investments within Japan, correct? That seems accurate enough to me, I am not aware of any exceptions to this. (It’s a bit unfair really, isn’t it) As a 65 year old Aussie about to retire in japan with my japanese wife, do I have to...

He talks about buying gold and whisky, and tells students (who are 16) about how whisky can appreciate in price (in his example going from 60,000yen to 3000,000yen for a bottle). I was blown away. Not a single mention of risks involved with any of these "investments". Hey don’t knock my g...

Mutual funds, stocks, margin trading etc.

Foreign savings accounts are not a great deal from a tax perspective, so unless the interest rate is high I don’t do much of it.

Provisional agreement --> You mean a pre-approval from a bank, I assume? Haha yes it seems that’s the term I should have used, I’d be an absolute novice in this outside of Japan:) Sumishin SBI should be competitive but if you have any net bank account I suppose they all offer mortgages so hitting u...

Hey, thanks for the detailed reply! My pleasure, it was nice to jog my memory! so I try to stay anchored to my base pay (~15M). I remember the housing builders hearing what sort of upfront payment we were willing to make, and being quite eager to get our business, so with that sort of info I think ...