Where / how do we start?

[Teru]

I have been subscribing for ages but due to sale of the (Japanese) family home, we now have some money to invest. I am a US national and my husband is a Japanese national with a Green Card. We lived in the US for a few years but now expect to live in Japan for the duration. We have (kind of moderate) retirement accounts and life insurance. We pay Japanese tax and file US returns every year. Each of our incomes is below the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion of $100,000ish. My husband (early 60s) wants to retire in a year or so, and I am self-employed so will probably work as long as I can.

My husband is in the process of opening a NISA and I thought I should get one too, but then I read on the forum that US citizens should not get a NISA. Does that go for Green Card holders, too? My husband has a Rakuten bank account and credit card and plans to purchase through Rakuten Shoken.

Naturally, we are concerned about having to pay US taxes. I read in the forum that Japan-listed mutual funds and ETFs may be subject to US tax / tax declaration. I also saw where there was a comment that mutual funds may be less attractive than ETFs. (Both comments come up on this thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=945).
If an American / Green Card holder invests in either Japanese or American funds / stocks / bonds, etc., is it just a fact of life that reporting in both Japan and the US is necessary? Is that the FBAR form? Is there anything we should avoid?

I wish I could package my questions into neat little boxes and make a new post for each, but I ended up writing everything together!! I would be grateful if some of you sempai investors would give us a few pointers.

[RetireJapan]

Welcome to the forum!

The problem with US citizenship/green cards is trying to comply with US tax reporting at the same time as Japanese tax reporting. The US laws really restrict what you can do here unfortunately.

The big things include:

US tax advantaged accounts are not tax-free in Japan, and vice versa
You basically can't use Japan listed ETFs or mutual funds
Some brokers (I believe) won't let you buy individual US shares

So basically you are left with buying individual Japanese stocks in a NISA account (or maybe individual US stocks if you can get someone to sell them to you here). Or just use US accounts.

Anyone better qualified to give advice on this?

[captainspoke]

Read thru this: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=648

And green card means the rules/restrictions for US citizens apply. If I were you, I really would not open NISA or IDECO. Can of worms for US people.

[Teru]

Thank you Ben and Captainspoke for your input. What a quandary! We are really going to have to think about what to do. I really appreciate this resource and your advice.