Transferring funds when moving home

[japantous]

New user here, so apologies if this has already been covered elsewhere.

I am moving back to the US and do not have a US bank account. I'm a bit hesitant to leave my savings (several million yen) in my Japanese accounts and transfer it later, so I'm considering the following options. Wisdom from anyone with experience in such matters would be much appreciated.

1. Transfer to a trusted relative's US account
2. Bring in cash on the flight with the appropriate paperwork/declaration
3. Transfer from Prestia or other non-resident account after creating a US bank account

[RetireJapan]

One option might be to open a TransferWise account and then use their 'virtual US account' to hold the money until you open a US account, at which point you can make a domestic transfer within the US to move the money.

[fools_gold]

You can also open a US bank account at Union Bank from Japan through MUFJ. I think it's called the Pacific Rim account.

[japantous]

One option might be to open a TransferWise account and then use their 'virtual US account' to hold the money until you open a US account, at which point you can make a domestic transfer within the US to move the money.

Thank you! I will look into this

[sutebayashi]

I used to refer to this site when I had similar needs:

http://kaigaisokin.seesaa.net/

[japantous]

Thank you for all the advice in this thread.

I ended up using transferwise to hold a portion of the money, transferred from Sony Bank, which I heard works well with transferwise (also did a test run using SMBC to transfer a small amount to transferwise and it never went through and now shows as cancelled)

Now I am in the US and have opened a bank account, so I am using transferwise to transfer between my Sony Bank account and the new account.

Hope this is helpful to anyone in a similar situation.