Taxes for US Retiree in Japan

[Bikkuri_Gaijin]

I'm a US citizen and current US resident married to a Japanese citizen. We are seriously considering moving to Japan for our retired life. I'll be in my late 50's and wife will be in her early 50's when we plan to move to Japan.

We plan to live fairly modestly while relying on retirement savings in traditional IRA, Roth IRA, and potentially 401k accounts for at least the first decade of our retirement. We will eventually start taking Social Security, likely as late as possible since we are hoping to live a long time.

Since I won't be earning any money in Japan, it appears that I'll be exempt from Japanese taxes for the first 5 years, after which I'll be considered a permanent resident for tax purposes. What about my wife, though? As a Japanese citizen resuming her residency, I can't imagine she will be eligible for this exemption. If not, how will her taxes be calculated?

Once I'm a permanent resident for tax purposes, what will be considered income in Japan? My concern, of course, is that we'll be on the hook for capital gains on investment earnings from our US tax exempt retirement accounts.

Or is income tax only on remittances to Japan? Some articles seem to say this. If so, what counts as remittances? Bank transfers, of course. What about ATM withdrawals from US accounts? What about purchases on US credit cards that are paid from US accounts?

And what about ward tax? What will count as income for that?

I will likely inherit some US property at some point. How will that work?

What else am I missing?

I've spent hours searching online for this info and still don't have a clear picture of how it works. I'd very much appreciate links to resources or firsthand experience to help me answer these questions, since it could make a big difference in how much savings we'll need.

[captainspoke]

You might try searching/browsing at https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/, there are some threads there with comments that may be useful.

On remittances, I think if you remit anything in a given year (from funds abroad that would otherwise not be taxed), doing so makes the entire amount taxable. Eg, if you have $10k in gains/dividends/interest and remit only $1000, the entire 10k becomes taxable. I think this is so that taxpayers can't play the system, saying that "no, I didn't remit the gains, I just brought in the principle", or something like that.

Cards are probably a gray area--technically a remittance, but it may depend on how much/how often.

[Bikkuri_Gaijin]

Thanks!

[captainspoke]

Thanks!

Reading: https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/c ... _resident/