Best option for sending large amount of funds outside of Japan

[retiregem]

Hello everyone!

I currently use TransferWise to send money from Japan to the US, but I think the fee might be too high after hitting certain thresholds such as $10,000 or more. I was wondering what others use for sending larger amounts of money outside of Japan.

I have heard of Shinsei Bank, but I currently use SBI Net Bank. They claim to have the ability to send money abroad, but the steps involved looked really time consuming such as "calling 2 business days beforehand". Is there a more streamlined method with Shinsei or even Sony Bank?

Any advice or people's own experience is appreciated, thank you!

[captainspoke]

From what I've read, TW is okay for amounts up to about $5k. Above that and sending via wire transfer is better (cheaper). Also, again from what I've read, TW has an upper limit of ¥1million, so it would take more than one transfer if you need to go over that.

I used to use shinsei rather often, and had good experience with them, but they've changed some of their services recently. I think now, even for wire transfers, they ask you to sign up for their GoRemit service (which I have not used). However, their exchange rates remain very good, if not the best. You may not need it, but you can maintain a US$ subaccount and leave your dollars there (for any length of time) until you decide to do the wire. (There are other large banks that do the same.)

And, again from what I've read, many places have gotten quite picky about anti-money laundering. Be ready with your My Number at least, and TW or any bank may want something else besides.

My transfers were always "to my own account" (reason for transfer). It's only speculation, but if you're transferring to your own account, just say that, and it may make things smoother--no other person/party is involved, so less need for and explanation 'why' you are sending money. (And if the eventual purpose is something else, they don't need to know about that--just that it is going from here to your own account there.)

[goodandbadjapan]

When I needed to send money home to buy a flat I just used transfer wise and split it up into 1,000,000 yen or so a time. Just did that several times and it worked out fine. No idea if it would have been cheaper to send it all at once through someone else but I don't think it would've made a massive difference and it was easy and quick enough. Nobody ever asked what the money was for. Many years ago I did send about 4 million back in one go through a bank but prefer the TW option as I could just do it from home rather than sitting for literally hours in a bank as they tried to do a foreign transfer!

[retiregem]

Guys, thank you for sharing! Hmm, I might just have to use TransferWise then.

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

I recently did a big transfer with Shinsei at the end of August. They made me go to one of their branches in Fukuoka to do it. It was quite bureaucratic they wanted your most recent tax return, bank book where you had received the money and salary slips for the last three months. Not only that, this service was closing down from the end of September or October. Everything is going over to their App, but you still need to submit those documents if you want to send over 1 million yen.

[RetireJapan]

Man, it's like Shinsei can't be bothered to have customers any more...

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

Man, it's like Shinsei can't be bothered to have customers any more...

I think a lot of this bureaucracy is actually related to the Japanese government cracking down on money laundering. I remember when you could easily send over one million yen on Shinsei Go Remit and power flex accounts. I think it was something quite recently.