Leaving Japan and transferring money back home

[gaijin86]

Is a "cashier's" check the same as a normal cheque/check/bankdraft?

[Deep Blue]

Nope.

[captainspoke]

I would not recommend a check--if something goes awry, you'd be unable to get it back to the originating bank to straighten things out. And I would refer to this kind of check as a D/D, or demand draft.

In the early years of my life here I used these to send money to the US, instead of a wire transfer. They worked fine, until one didn't. Even tho it was a check effectively drawn on the NYC headquarters of a big US bank, it was refused as 'not being a US check', or some stupid thing like that. In fairness to the idiot who rejected it, tho it was drawn on that US bank, name right there on the check, it also had the name of my local (regional) bank on it.

After I'd mailed it, it didn't clear, and didn't clear, etc., and after several months it came back to me with that reason on an attached note. I had to go back to the bank here (which I had already done a couple times asking if they could inquire whether the check was being processed) and cancel that check, and start over--with a wire.

I never used a demand draft again.

(tho you might hope that the world is a better place now...)

[sutebayashi]

Hi all,

sadly my plans of retiring in Japan have been cut short. I have to move back to England though will be returning every year to visit the inlaws.

From what I've researched I need to:

- Notify authorities of my leaving and tidy up things like pension etc
- close my Japan based bank accounts before I leave.

The exchange rate is horrendous at the moment. I do not want to transfer and convert all my yen into pounds. I'd rather wait till things return to normal (if they ever will). Being able to move the yen into a UK account as is would be best.

My current bank, Barclays, states I need to be tax resident to open a multi currency account. I have a UK address but I have a feeling they will figure out I'm not tax residient and will deny my application.

This means I'm forced to transfer and exchange into pounds.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can get round this or alternative ideas to getting my nest egg back home.

I didn’t do this with a UK account, but I did open a bank account in my country of birth (British commonwealth nation) a decade or so back, while being in Japan.

The bank was offering that as a service to to-be immigrants, but they basically allow for non-residents to have accounts.

This sort of option might be available in the UK too, I would have thought, unless regulations have since changed circumstances.