RetireJapan

Other than the hassle of filling in the re-entry card I think the system is quite efficient. Foreign residents also have the special line in immigration that is shorter than the tourist AND citizen line (although Japanese passport holders have the automated gates now) so its not all bad.

PR applications have been getting longer and longer. I know 2 people who submitted 1 month apart in 2023 but the first one got it a year and a month later but the other one took almost 18 months. Immigration even straight up tells you the wait is going to be long.

Interesting topic. A bit of googling (as in the first result) shows this page: https://www.osohshiki.jp/column/article/960/ According to this, funeral gifts are not taxable 不課税 which is different from tax-free 非課税. Basically that its not an exception, but that it just isn't taxed. However, that site...

Japan has a flat capital gains tax rate. NISA is tax-free with a purchase limit. The only people this confuses are the people who actively don't want to learn.

Capital gains should be higher to prevent rich people from making money hand over fist. NISA is a good compromise because of its low limit. The day-traders won't bother with it because the limit is purchases and it helps other people invest and save money.

Weird, so if you started in July at 100k/mo, you'd get no bonus I guess? You'd have to set it to 200k/mo to max it out instead (if that's possible). Max seems to be 100k https://faq.sbisec.co.jp/answer/635b84c142f304f888700134/ ＜1回あたりの設定金額上限＞ 毎日コース：4,858円（120万円÷247日） 毎週コース：23,076円（120万円÷52週） 毎月コース：...

https://www.sbisec.co.jp/ETGate/?OutSide=on&_ControlID=WPLETmgR001Control&_DataStoreID=DSWPLETmgR001Control&getFlg=on&burl=search_nisa&cat1=nisa&cat2=info&dir=info&file=nisa_info241115.html TLDR: SBI are cancelling all Tsumitate setup to use all your allowance in Janu...

Insurance can be claimed as a deduction.
Furusato Nozei is not technically tax savings but you pre-pay your tax and get a gift in return.
A mortgage can also be claimed (they changed it up a lot recently but if you buy brand new, you can get 0.7% of your loan as a deduction)

Hello again, I finally got set up with Rakuten Securities this year and managed to fill my annual allowance. Now that is all sorted, I'm theory crafting the most efficient way to fill next year's allowance. Rakuten sucked me in and I ended up also switching my phone and signing up for the Credit Ca...

I've put off my Furusato nozei spree until now. Anyone have any suggestions for some good deals? I would have bought Wilbur's grapes if I had gotten around to it but 2nd half of the year is always especially busy for me so I haven't been paying attention to much of anything.