RetireWiki.jp - latest updates and discussion

[adamu]

I'm back after a hiatus.

First, it's come to my attention that the automated mail that is sent when a new account is created got filtered as spam by some providers, or just didn't arrive. So if you requested an account and thought I was ignoring you, sorry about that . This has been going on for more than 3 months, so it's possible the original mail may have been deleted by now. If so, you can request a password reset here: https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Special:PasswordReset

I'll make sure I follow-up with new registrations better to make sure everything is going smoothly from now.

Changes since the last update:

New articles (uncredited links are by me):

• Double tax conventions started by Kuma.
• Driving licence started by Kuma.
• Childcare and Caregiver Act started by Kuma.
• Obtaining a Japanese passport for a child started by Kuma.
• Childcare Allowance / Jidou teate (児童手当) started by Kuma.
• Tax Payment Certificates / Nozei Shomeisho (納税証明書) started by Kuma.
• End of year tax adjustment.
• Naturalisation.

Article updates:

• iDeCo - End of year tax adjustment section added.
• Permanent residency - Link to Naturalisation page and compare to Naturalisation, cited the constitution.
• United Kingdom - Lots of additions by Kuma, including:
  • Visiting the UK section created
  • Expanded Double Tax section
  • Expanded UK State Pension section

[Beaglehound]

Welcome back

[SZQ]

I'm back after a hiatus.
...

Thank you for creating the wiki. I am in the process of gathering the necessary documents for the permanent residency application through the HSP route. The wiki helped a lot!

[adamu]

Thank you for creating the wiki. I am in the process of gathering the necessary documents for the permanent residency application through the HSP route. The wiki helped a lot!

Great let me know if anything was innacurate or out of date. This kind of stuff needs to be kept constantly up to date by the latest applicants.

[adamu]

August update.

Big thanks to Moneymatters for writing up a guide to Nenkin Net with screenshots. Great resource for people who want to check up on their pension but struggle with the Japanese (or just want an English summary).

https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Nenkin_Net

Moneymatters also got an article started on car insurance:

https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Car_insurance

And Kuma has been adding even more info to the UK article, this time clarifying information about names on passports, and voting.

https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/United_Kingdom

[adamu]

September Update

This month Kuma has been single-handedly fulfilling my dreams by adding and improving lots of content, and most of it information I wouldn't have thought of myself.

HeadofBean also signed up, and added bank account details to the United Kingdom article for how to pay the UK state pension.

In fact, the UK article is getting quite comprehensive, to the point it may be even be useful to non-residents of Japan too.

New articles

Two main new articles this month: Residency for tax purposes, and Comparison of iDeCo and NISA, both started by Kuma.

Improved articles

The main page was becoming a long list due to the increasing number of articles, so I re-worked the layout to group related articles together in boxes.

There have also been numerous improvements and revisions to existing articles - too many to list here so I'll just list a few key articles:

https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/IDeCo - added sections on eligibility, contribution limits, and benefits.
https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/United_Kingdom - pension section greatly expanded, lots of tweaks and improvements.
https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Permanent_residency - information about renewal of card, confusion between tax residence, WIP on converting from spouse visa.
https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Japanese_pension_system - added information about fuka nenkin.
https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Getting_married_in_Japan - information about surnames, and civil partnerships.

[kuma]

This month Kuma has been single-handedly fulfilling my dreams by adding and improving lots of content, and most of it information I wouldn't have thought of myself.

Flattered by the comment. I take my hat off to Adamu for setting up the wiki, initiating, updating and improving a wide range of articles, and editing things for clarity, readability, syntax, proper citation, etc. Great to be part of something collaborative, and excited to see the wiki develop.

As with the forum, I'll probably have periods of hibernation!

[adamu]

It's been more than 6 months since I did an update - we've had a lot of changes so I won't cover everything in detail, but here are some recent notable updates.

• The Japanese pension system article has had considerable edits by multiple people and is worth a read (or re-read if you've not checked it out for a while).
• Likewise the Residency for tax purposes article, started by Kuma, has been greatly expanded by CAM in the last few months.
• The Making a will article, started by Boborogogi and greatly expanded by CAM has some great information about wills in Japan. Lots of new info for me here. I'm pretty happy about this article as it appears to be one of those areas where impartial English info is not readily available, one of my motivations for starting the wiki.
• I finished my research on the Exit tax to work out who it applies to.
• Kuma has been updating lots of data to bring it up to date for 2022 - another great benefit of being an editable source of info! And also has been adding and updating the UK article with info about British citizenship - probably not unrelated to there being a new little bear in the Kuma household
• Tkydon added information about taxation related for Furusato Nozei, Japanese pensions, and foreign pensions.

CAM is our star editor this period, adding huge amounts of well-presented info to multiple articles. And Kuma also for the new info and efforts to keep old info up to date. Thanks also to TBS, Boborogogi, NorthSaver, and HeadofBean for their valuable edits.

I need to try to do the next update at least in the next three months, because the software doesn't easily let you get a summary of changes more than 3 months old.

[TJKansai]

The will section looks good, though the last bit seems fairly vague (no fault of the authors). Of course it is probably impossible for Japan to have a rule which covers every country. Still, I find it hard to believe people with PR won't be covered under these rules. We are certainly taxed like Japanese citizens.

Nice to see they have introduced a simple version that doesn't cost hundreds of thousands of yen. I'll see if I can get my in-laws to do it.

Considerations for foreign nationals

According to the Japanese government, non-Japanese citizens in Japan have their estate dealt with under the law of their 'home country'. Other countries may have similar regulations. The safest approach would seem to be to make as simple a provision in both countries as possible.


One thing the US has (at least in some states) is directed beneficiaries. By filing with the financial agency you can actually have your estate distributed fairly easily. I know this as my uncle took care of my mom's estate. Ninety percent was at Vanguard which simplified things, and getting it all settled took just a couple months and one or two trips to the courthouse. No lawyers were necessary.

[captainspoke]

...
One thing the US has (at least in some states) is directed beneficiaries. By filing with the financial agency you can actually have your estate distributed fairly easily. I know this as my uncle took care of my mom's estate. Ninety percent was at Vanguard which simplified things, and getting it all settled took just a couple months and one or two trips to the courthouse. No lawyers were necessary.

I've been told by the relevant department of my broker there in the US that transfer on death (TOD) is indeed state based. Unfortunately, since I've always used my j-address with them, the question immediately became, how would they know which state's rules would be relevant in my case?

Also, tho getting along with a US account that is based on a friend or family member's address might be okay for ongoing investing, using that address for TOD, while it might work, would be a point at which you (and others) would really want things to go smoothly--and not have questions about where you lived come up that could disrupt or snarl that TOD process.