Options for US citizens in Japan

[jeronimoski]

I have a Schwab and Fidelity account, both of which I was able to open after I had already been living in Japan for 5 years (circa 2016-2017). Usually, you cannot do this, but since I still have a valid US driver's license and therefore 'residence' in my home state (ie my parent's house), they didn't have a problem in either case.

In addition, I have been able to open a Robinhood and M1 Finance account from Japan (also just using US driver's license as the ID format). I have never looked into WeBull or some of the other investment/fintech tools.

I personally just use Schwab and Robinhood; the Schwab debit card is great, and I also have the 2 Schwab credit cards (Amex Platinum version and the free version). The Platinum card was much more valuable back when I was flying every month for work, using the hotel credits, etc ... now not so much. But I keep it since any Amex points I earn can be converted in cash at a 1.25% rate.

Overall, highly recommend Schwab for the investment level or long term trader. Robinhood is more of a fad (maybe?) - but I enjoy it for option trading purposes.

Related to taxes, I also find dividends to be around 10% too.

Here in Japan, I do have a Rakuten Securities account since I was planning on using their Rakuten point to investment feature, except it only seems to work on mutual funds (for fractional purposes) or for full domestic stock. I had hoped to buy the S&P 500 (1557 is the code to find it in Rakuten). But I don't have 36,050 points to buy one share.

Really??? I once forgot my password at Fidelity so I had to call them. While making small talk about living in Japan, they put me on hold and then froze my account cause they found out I was living abroad. And I still have an address in the US. Bastards!

[TJKansai]

I set up a Vanguard account in the 1990s. At one point I had my Japanese address on it, but then reverted back to my US address, which was probably a good move.

I had a Capital One credit card, but they closed it on me when they found out I was in Japan.

I also have an ETrade Securities and ETrade Bank, which are then connected to Vanguard.

All my US credit cards are linked to ETrade Bank, which means I don't need to send money in either direction.

I sent enough money via postal orders back in the 1990s and early 2000s that I don't feel the need to send more.

My younger son is now in school in Hawaii, with a debit and a credit card he is good to go. Once he is 18 I'll get him a US account using his Hawaii ID.

In Japan, my wife has an SBI account (was ETrade Japan before SBI took over, about 15-20 years ago). She also has Prestia. We have a couple funds with them, but fees are too high.

The kids also have SBI NISA/NISA. I have SBI iDeCo.

My elder son has Etrade Bank, which we set up using the Ohio State ID he got when studying abroad.

Side note: We had planned to send my younger son to my cousins in Canada for a year of high school, and we prepaid the local school tuition 9 months in advance with a Prestia transfer (which was a PITA). Then COVID came along, and cashing the refund, a paper CAD check, was a major PITA.

[MrGoodkat]

I would really like to know what brokerage accounts can be opened from here in Japan. If any one has an idea? I just tried M1 after reading this thread and I got stopped at the phone number verification line...I've also tried Webull a few weeks ago and had no luck there...
Cheers!

[adamu]

I would really like to know what brokerage accounts can be opened from here in Japan.

There is a small section about that here, but I'm not sure how up to date it is.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Investi ... _residents

[MrGoodkat]

I would really like to know what brokerage accounts can be opened from here in Japan.

There is a small section about that here, but I'm not sure how up to date it is.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Investi ... _residents

Cheers mate, really appreciate that help!

[TJKansai]

I would really like to know what brokerage accounts can be opened from here in Japan. If any one has an idea? I just tried M1 after reading this thread and I got stopped at the phone number verification line...I've also tried Webull a few weeks ago and had no luck there...
Cheers!

If you really want an overseas account, it is probably worth getting an overseas SIM card and phone number (assuming you have the address already sorted).

[wsanton]

What is this Awful PFIC rule? I'm an American who just opened a new nisa account with SBI (took forever). I purchased a bunch of the UFJ eMaxis series, but just noticed this thread about Americans being required to file lenghty and complicated PFIC tax forms. Is this something an online tax service can take care of easily? Please advise. Thank you.

[beanhead]

What is this Awful PFIC rule? I'm an American who just opened a new nisa account with SBI (took forever). I purchased a bunch of the UFJ eMaxis series, but just noticed this thread about Americans being required to file lenghty and complicated PFIC tax forms. Is this something an online tax service can take care of easily? Please advise. Thank you.

Lots of information about the challenges.
For example https://www.retirejapan.com/us-citizens ... d-holders/
https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/c ... _in_japan/

[captainspoke]

What is this Awful PFIC rule? I'm an American who just opened a new nisa account with SBI (took forever). I purchased a bunch of the UFJ eMaxis series, but just noticed this thread about Americans being required to file lenghty and complicated PFIC tax forms. Is this something an online tax service can take care of easily? Please advise. Thank you.

The tax filing for PFICs is difficult and time-consuming, even for professional tax preparers. So if you're thinking of paying someone to do it, know that you'll be charged for their time.

I'm pretty sure all the eMaxis funds are PFICs (really any foreign mutual fund is, but especially those that 'reinvest dividends internally'--wht the tax preparer has to do is tease out what dividends were paid, and when, among other things).

If you were someone I knew, I'd tell you to sell those immediately, or yesterday, and perhaps at tax time (US) cross your fingers and pretend that you never owned them.

[wsanton]

Yikes! Just my luck. Will take your advice and abandon ship without delay. Do you know of any steady (eMaxis-type) passive world stock funds U.S. citizens can purchase through SBI without getting stressed out by the IRS or milked by tax filing services? And, can you point me in the direction of interest/dividend producing products for older folks on a short time line? I find the SBI website a bit user unfriendly. I've been living in Japan a long time and never got into investing until about 15 years ago. It was terrible timing (the markets almost imploded) and U.S. citizens became unwelcome in European banks. I barely got out with my shirt and became severely risk averse. Now with fund management fees down and the new NISA rules I thought I'd give it another shot. (Thank you Ben for your YouTube posts and Retire Japan Board posters.)