RetireJapan

I currently hold VT directly through Rakuten, and am planning to buy more soon. What are the advantages/disadvantages versus just buying vt? I'm guessing less taxes as an advantage, slightly more fees as a disadvantage? Really trying to figure out what might be the practical difference over say a 20 year period.

paul wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:48 am I currently hold VT directly through Rakuten, and am planning to buy more soon. What are the advantages/disadvantages versus just buying vt? I'm guessing less taxes as an advantage, slightly more fees as a disadvantage? Really trying to figure out what might be the practical difference over say a 20 year period.

My impression is that the advantage is that there are no minimum purchases, and you can buy in yen.
The disadvantage is that Rakuten takes a small fee.

Don't think this will change the withholding tax, it will just be paid by Rakuten instead of you.

So if I'm buying, say, Y200,000 worth 4 times a year, and then holding 20 years, it seems like it would still be better to just buy directly?

...I know I should do the math myself, but you know...

Now that they have reduced the minimum and maximum fee for buying foreign stocks, that might work.

I haven't done the maths yet

Awesome!

If they reinvest the dividends that would be awesome. Currently reinvesting manually at the moment. I also buy Vanguard's bond ETFs, so I'll probably just stick to my current way for the time being. If I find the time to find a Japan-based (but international) bond fund that seems as good as BND / BNDX, maybe I'll look into the Rakuten wrapper further.

Is there a purchase fee for the fund? I've not traded any mutual funds so far, only ETFs, so I'm not sure how it works. That would make a big difference if it could be bought for less than the ETF (although in Paul's case the ETF would be free if purchasing inside a NISA at SBI assuming he doesn't go over the NISA allowance with other purchases).

If I find the time to find a Japan-based (but international) bond fund that seems as good as BND / BNDX, maybe I'll look into the Rakuten wrapper further.

SBI's EXE-i international bond fund comprises of SCHZ (Schwab's equivalent of BND) and IGOV (iShares international treasuries fund). IGOV is probably a better bet if you're living in Japan as BNDX is hedged to the dollar. Fees for the SBI fund are about 0.4% though.

It seems that Rakuten also created the regular mutual fund wrapper for Vanguard funds a few days ago, including the warpper for emerging markets.
Although, I'm not sure if there is any sense in buying anything else but US equities/bonds via US ETF due to the withholding tax.

paul wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:22 am So if I'm buying, say, Y200,000 worth 4 times a year, and then holding 20 years, it seems like it would still be better to just buy directly?

...I know I should do the math myself, but you know...

Is it possible for someone full-time tax-resident in Japan, and not holding any overseas bank accounts or brokerage accounts, to buy Vanguard ETFs directly, as opposed to buying through Rakuten or SBI? (sorry if this is a very basic question, I'm a beginner).

I've heard Vanguard won't let overseas residents have accounts with them, although if you already have one you might be able to keep using it to buy their mutual funds.

I don't think it really matters who you buy an ETF from.