Best stockbroker for non-Japanese?

[TokyoWart]

I am curious whether there is a brokerage house here in Japan available to non-Japanese citizens, similar to, say, HSBC, Smith Barney or Morgan Stanley. In other words, a large investment house with a dedicated broker who can manage one's investments. Thanks.

I think the full service brokerage firms like Nomura do offer this kind of service (at least Nomura has approached me a few times about it). Personally I think in almost all cases this is a mistake because a wirehouse doesn't really know what investments will be best for you and if anything Japan has more bad investment advice than the US or UK. A wirehouse broker is strongly incentivized to push whatever product the firm is trying to market at that moment regardless of whether or not it's really a good move. I still recall Nomura pushing very hard to persuade me to buy Tepco bonds shortly before that company's financial disaster following 3/11.

[beanhead]

I think the full service brokerage firms like Nomura do offer this kind of service (at least Nomura has approached me a few times about it).

In English? I thought their services here were only available in Japanese.

[TokyoWart]

I think the full service brokerage firms like Nomura do offer this kind of service (at least Nomura has approached me a few times about it).

In English? I thought their services here were only available in Japanese.

No. My experience with all investment firms in Japan is that you must be fluent in Japanese because they have no way to prove that you have understood the investment-related materials they are giving you if you don't speak Japanese.

[Lauram64]

I have investments with BMO (Bank of Montreal) in Canada and want to move them over to Japan. They include Stocks, ETFs, and securities, and a few bonds. I can transfer six of my stocks to Japan but all of the others cannot be transferred (they don't exist with Japanese brokerages or are not recognized in Japan). For those six, I was advised that Mizuho Shoken can accept them (in principle), but with the rest, I am unclear the best way to deal with them. I will figure that out with my advisor in Canada. I guess my questions are: 1. Have any Canadians done what I am proposing to do? 2. Have any of you had experience with Mizuho shoken or have information about them?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[RetireJapan]

I have investments with BMO (Bank of Montreal) in Canada and want to move them over to Japan. They include Stocks, ETFs, and securities, and a few bonds. I can transfer six of my stocks to Japan but all of the others cannot be transferred (they don't exist with Japanese brokerages or are not recognized in Japan). For those six, I was advised that Mizuho Shoken can accept them (in principle), but with the rest, I am unclear the best way to deal with them. I will figure that out with my advisor in Canada. I guess my questions are: 1. Have any Canadians done what I am proposing to do? 2. Have any of you had experience with Mizuho shoken or have information about them?

Thank you in advance for your help.

I recommend starting a new thread for this question, with an appropriate title (like Transferring investments from Canada to Japan)

[7-seasons.com]

SBI has been fine but the website itself looks like Yahoo Japan on steroids. I just do bigger positions in funds there, no crazy trading. Their phone support and chat support is good too - I was trying to cancel an order in Japanese over the phone (because of the crazy website and difficult Japanese) and managed to do it seconds before the closing bell.

Interactive Brokers has still been the best in my experience in terms of overall options (including options!) - international stocks, OTC, you name it. You do have to subscribe to each data set (per exchange/country) - like pay a small fee for Japan data, which is probably normal, although you can still see most of the data anyway for free but it isn't real-time. They added a crypto partner but I haven't tried it out. Only maybe minor issue is their tax report comes out maybe a couple or more weeks after the Japan tax deadline.

Tradestation is a good platform but only has American stocks and a crypto partner/separate website with a very limited number of tokens.

[runmanTX]

I'm American and quite happy using TD Ameritrade. Signed up with them on recommendations from RetireJapan members over a year ago. I do have a stateside bank account which is pretty important, I think. I remember having to signup via paper application/fax as I could not via their online site because I was a Japanese resident.

[concerned]

Anyone using Swissquote?
https://en.swissquote.lu/about-us

[beanhead]

Anyone using Swissquote?
https://en.swissquote.lu/about-us

No. What would be the benefit of this kind of account? Is this for people who know they are planning to leave Japan in the next 3,4,5 years or so?

[zeroshiki]

I seem to remember someone here or r/JapanFinance saying that as Japan residents we can't actually use overseas brokers technically. I tried googling and found this on the FSA website:

https://www.fsa.go.jp/ordinary/kanyu/20090731.html

海外所在業者であったとしても、日本の居住者のために又は日本の居住者を相手方として金融商品取引を業として行う場合は、金融商品取引業の登録（日本の「金融商品取引法」に基づく登録）が必要です。日本で登録を受けずに金融商品取引業を行うことは、禁止されています。（違反者は罰則の対象となります。）

It's a general warning regarding using shady foreign "financial" companies but it has that line saying that those companies can't deal with Japan residents unless they're registered in Japan. Nothing about penalties for us but I don't think you actually want to deal with the headache in case you get audited.