RetireJapan

Found out that we did indeed get the apartment. Yeah! One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post was when we filed our initial application with the realtor, we asked if we should include some financial statements since we had no fixed income like a job. We had read that having a bank account ...

Thanks for all the feedback. I remember renting 20 years ago when I worked and had some issues about being a foreigner but for the most part since I had a good job it didn't seem to be an issue. One place was rented to me by a language school and I had to attend an hour long meeting on trash as appa...

Yup, as you mention a guarantor is most lIkely required and should not be an issue as we have family. Our main concern was the initial application looked very similar to the Orico one we filled out when applying for a Costco credit card that was denied. Of course we'd only been back in Japan for a f...

We retired to Japan last November. We moved in with my wife's family (parents and younger brother) with the expectation that we would probably do some renovations to make their house more comfortable for 5 adults living together. We waited to make sure everyone was happy with the new living arrangem...

Follow-up from my original question many moons ago. Perhaps this info may be of some use to others... I finally did my first big international wire from the U.S. to Japan this week. Did an international wire from my USAA Federal Savings Bank to my Mizuho account. Had to call late at night Japan time...

Appreciate all the advice from everyone. Obviously we have several options and this is more good information that will help us make the best decision for us. I'm sure it might help others as well who are in the market for a new credit card.

We're moving back to Japan next week and I've been trying to do some research in advance for credit cards. In the U.S. we've always used cards that give cash back as we like the freedom to use our rewards for whatever we want. Trying to compare the various credit card offerings in Japan has been cha...

Thanks for following up with the results of your transfer. Glad it worked out for you!

I believe those steps are correct but have not yet tried doing such a transaction yet. Our move to Japan got pushed to next month so it will be some time before I try it out. Hopefully the favorable exchange rate will continue.

Wow. Thanks for such a detailed response. I had stumbled across the sailing permit in some IRS publication but didn't find much about it elsewhere. I suspect as you mention, it's rarely filed. My post was mostly directed to the exit tax but I appreciate you going the extra mile with info on the sail...