Rakuten / SBI differences

[DRAKMAN]

I've been planning to start investing some money in Japan, and I've been recommended to go with either SBI or Rakuten (or eventually Monex).
In most threads I've seen, people say that Rakuten and SBI are basically the same, but I wanted to understand in what ways they actually differ before making a choice.

Here are some points that I particularly care about:

- Ease of use: my Japanese is decent, but not decent enough to be able to sustain a phone call if I need assistance (email assistance would be fine). So I'd rather go with the service that has the smoother experience overall. That is, both for the sign-up process and for the actual use of the service once I've signed up.

- Catalog: I am not a fan of mutual funds, so I plan to invest mostly in ETFs and individual stocks. I've seen both SBI and Rakuten support Vanguard ETFs, which is a first good step, but I might be interested in investing in more specific, sector-based ETFs, and I was wondering how wide is the support on both platforms.
SBI seems to always find the symbol I'm looking for, while Rakuten very often does not find it (unless I select the tick-box to show symbols I cannot trade).
What I'm wondering is whether SBI actually supports all these extra stuff, or maybe they are only showing the symbol but I wouldn't actually be able to buy it. If any of you has SBI and would care to check this for me, one search I made as an extreme test is with the very non-japanese cannabis-based ETF, MJ. Rakuten does not show it, SBI does. But I would find it surprising if that was actually available.
Apart from this, if there is any other major difference in catalog I should be aware of, please let me know!

- Foreign denominated products: I plan on buying USD denominated products. Is there any advantage in terms of fee or ease of use between SBI and Rakuten?
Also, Rakuten has a Forex account. Do I need to open it to convert JPY to USD in order to buy a foreign stock, or that can be done without?

- Integration: I use Shinsei Bank, and I'm frankly tired by how bad the system is overall (internet banking not working on Chrome, and oh boy the exceptional GoRemit app).
So I'd like to setup either SBI or Rakuten to be both my Bank, Credit card and Securities account. I heard it is recommended because you gain points and the services just work better when paired together.
Which of the two environments is better in your opinion?

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this, please let me know your recommendations.
Also, if you have any other point worth discussing when comparing the two, I'm all ears!

[adamu]

Can't speak for Rakuten, but SBI's currency exchange fees are very high.

To buy/sell USD efficiently with SBI, you need to also open an SBI bank account, do the exchange with the bank's much more reasonable rates, and then transfer it to the securities account and vice-versa.

SBI Securities charge 0.25 yen for every dollar. So $1000 costs 250 yen, $10k costs 2500 yen etc.
Sumishin SBI Net Bank charges 0.04 yen ($1k = 40 yen, $10k = 400 yen, etc).

These fees are (one of the reasons) why I gave up on US ETFs and now stick to Japanese mutual funds for new investments.

[DRAKMAN]

Can't speak for Rakuten, but SBI's currency exchange fees are very high.

Thank you for the information, that is definitely an important one to consider.
It seems that if I open the Rakuten FX account, all transactions have no fee at all, they just apply the currency spread.
For USD to JPY it is set to 0.002 JPY, which seems ok to me if I understand the math correctly (it should be just a multiplier, so it should be a straight 0.002 versus your 0.04. But I'd like confirmation on this.
It seems even SBI and Monex have the same rate, but only through the Forex accounts.

[adamu]

Quick look at Rakuten shows they also charge 0.25 yen per dollar: https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/curre ... ssion.html

edit: that's Rakuten Securities, I didn't check their other FX options you mentioned yet!

[DRAKMAN]

Quick look at Rakuten shows they also charge 0.25 yen per dollar: https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/curre ... ssion.html

I did found that same page you linked, and honestly it made me confused.
The one I did find earlier is: https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/commission/
There's a table claiming 0.2銭 for USD/JPY... but then they link the same page you posted, which states 25銭.
I don't really get it, do you?

[DRAKMAN]

I was wondering about one more thing.
I have USDs in my previous US based online broker. I wanted to transfer them to Rakuten/SBI once I have an account.
Is it possible to send the money as USDs without Rakuten/SBI automatically converting them into JPY? Since I plan to invest in USD, this would cause me to waste two conversions back and forth for nothing.

[adamu]

Quick look at Rakuten shows they also charge 0.25 yen per dollar: https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/curre ... ssion.html

I did found that same page you linked, and honestly it made me confused.
The one I did find earlier is: https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/commission/
There's a table claiming 0.2銭 for USD/JPY... but then they link the same page you posted, which states 25銭.
I don't really get it, do you?

That is confusing. It seems like there's the lazy/standard way that charges 0.25 yen, or you can use the FX feature to do it for 0.02 yen. It looks like Securities account holders can automatically use the FX feature, but I'm not sure. However, the catch seems to be that in the FX account, orders must be in units of $1000 (I may have misread this, so better to double-check: https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/fx/charm/rule.html). I'm also not clear if it's possible to do spot trading there, or if only trades with leverage work. It definitely looks aimed at FX traders rather than investors that just want to change their money.

Is it possible to send the money as USDs without Rakuten/SBI automatically converting them into JPY?

Again I'm only looking at SBI because that's what I'm familiar with. It seems possible, but I've never tried it (although I *have* transferred USD from SBI securities to SBI Net Bank with no issues). https://www.netbk.co.jp/contents/lineup ... n-uketori/. The main point is that you need to have an actual foreign currency bank account. A securities account is not sufficient.

edit: Looks like Rakuten Bank can do it too: https://www.rakuten-bank.co.jp/geo/incoming/

[adamu]

I'm wondering is whether SBI actually supports all these extra stuff, or maybe they are only showing the symbol but I wouldn't actually be able to buy it. If any of you has SBI and would care to check this for me, one search I made as an extreme test is with the very non-japanese cannabis-based ETF, MJ. Rakuten does not show it, SBI does. But I would find it surprising if that was actually available.

I checked MJ, it's not available. Here are the supported stocks: https://search.sbisec.co.jp/v2/popwin/i ... _list.html

[mule96]

Is it possible to send the money as USDs without Rakuten/SBI automatically converting them into JPY?

Again I'm only looking at SBI because that's what I'm familiar with. It seems possible, but I've never tried it (although I *have* transferred USD from SBI securities to SBI Net Bank with no issues). https://www.netbk.co.jp/contents/lineup ... n-uketori/. The main point is that you need to have an actual foreign currency bank account. A securities account is not sufficient.

edit: Looks like Rakuten Bank can do it too: https://www.rakuten-bank.co.jp/geo/incoming/

You can receive USD and keep them in USD on SBI Net Bank (I did that). As adamu mentions, you need to setup the USD account at SBI Net Bank beforehand (easiest is for example converting 100 JPY into USD within the bank-interface). If you don't have the USD account setup beforehand, it converts automatically into JPT (also happened to me).

[DRAKMAN]

You can receive USD and keep them in USD on SBI Net Bank (I did that). As adamu mentions, you need to setup the USD account at SBI Net Bank beforehand (easiest is for example converting 100 JPY into USD within the bank-interface). If you don't have the USD account setup beforehand, it converts automatically into JPT (also happened to me).

Great, I guess Rakuten probably works the same then.

I've one more question that just popped up after reading a post about Rakuten online. They were saying that buying individual stocks in Japan is a pain because you need to buy a minimum of 100 shares at the time (which can be a huge investment for companies like, say, Nintendo or Toyota).
I was wondering if this is still the case for Rakuten, what the situation is for SBI, and most importantly, whether the situation applies to US stocks as well.