wiring money to Japan from the US

[coffeespoon]

Are you trying to wire the money to yourself or your wife's account? Not sure if my experience helps, but here it is: I am a dual citizen (over age 20). In the US, I am considered a US citizen, but in Japan I am considered Japanese. When I called my US bank to wire the money and gave them the info for the bank account info in Japan, they never asked about the citizenship of the receiver (myself) on the US side. The amount I sent to myself was much much bigger than 3000 dollars.

[daylan]

My wife had heard stories from a few of her Japanese friends about constraints on wiring money from the US to Japan, but with few details or specifics provided. She is in Tokyo now and talked with someone at Mizuho bank where she has an account and was assured that as long as she could demonstrate that the funds were legitimate there were no constraints on funds transfers from her account in the US to hers at Mizuho. I think at least one of the friend's horror stories was related to leaving the US permanently and having to pay an exit tax, which is not something we intend to do.

[Gulliver]

I know this thread is a little old but I wanted to follow-up to see if I understood the logistics correctly for using a Wise account to send money from the US to Japan (even though the original poster didn't go this route).

1) Open a Wise account in Japan (i.e. using Japan issued ID such as MyNumber, driver's license or resident card). This Japan Wise account will get a US Bank routing number you can use.

2) From your US bank/investment account do a simple ACH transfer using the Wise bank routing number. Not an international transfer.

3) Money (in USD) arrives in Wise account

4) Convert USD in Wise account to JPY

5) Transfer JPY from Wise account to your Japanese bank account (simple furikomi process). Not an international transfer here either.

This question was never answered. I’m about to try a test US to Japan transfer using wise and was also wondering about the proper procedure. Does the OP have 2-5 correct?

[bunbunaz]

I believe those steps are correct but have not yet tried doing such a transaction yet. Our move to Japan got pushed to next month so it will be some time before I try it out. Hopefully the favorable exchange rate will continue.

[Gulliver]

I know this thread is a little old but I wanted to follow-up to see if I understood the logistics correctly for using a Wise account to send money from the US to Japan (even though the original poster didn't go this route).

1) Open a Wise account in Japan (i.e. using Japan issued ID such as MyNumber, driver's license or resident card). This Japan Wise account will get a US Bank routing number you can use.

2) From your US bank/investment account do a simple ACH transfer using the Wise bank routing number. Not an international transfer.

3) Money (in USD) arrives in Wise account

4) Convert USD in Wise account to JPY

5) Transfer JPY from Wise account to your Japanese bank account (simple furikomi process). Not an international transfer here either.

This question was never answered. I’m about to try a test US to Japan transfer using wise and was also wondering about the proper procedure. Does the OP have 2-5 correct?

I can confirm that the above method works. There’s a currency conversion fee of .50 USD And a ¥200 fee to transfer the money from Wise to your bank in Japan.

Everything worked pretty smoothly once I figured out which buttons to push (add vs transfer vs debit). The whole transfer from country to country was completed within a matter of minutes.

I did the math and for my bank any transfer under $10,000 would be cheaper than a bank wire. Your banks wire fees may be less or more so that number would change in kind.

I’m overly cautious so I did a comparison where I wired a small amount of money and then sent the same amount of money with wise so I could get a precise picture what was going on. I found it very helpful (there were some fees associated with wiring that were a surprise to me).

[bunbunaz]

Thanks for following up with the results of your transfer. Glad it worked out for you!

[SOT]

Lots of good information here. Thanks everyone.

One more question: when sending money to yourself in Japan, from a foreign country (in my case the UK), is there a limit to how much money you can send yourself each year? If there is a limit and you go over do you get taxed or some other horrible punishment?

I'm not talking about income from a different country, more like savings that have accumulated over the years, gifts etc...

Thanks in advance!

[Beaglehound]

Lots of good information here. Thanks everyone.

One more question: when sending money to yourself in Japan, from a foreign country (in my case the UK), is there a limit to how much money you can send yourself each year? If there is a limit and you go over do you get taxed or some other horrible punishment?

I'm not talking about income from a different country, more like savings that have accumulated over the years, gifts etc...

Thanks in advance!

Nope, no limit. And no taxation assuming no income. You will be asked about it by the bank (where it’s from, what it’s for) and the tax office will be informed (and may enquire as to its provenance).

[SOT]

Thanks very much for the reply and the good news!

[sutebayashi]

I'm not talking about income from a different country, more like savings that have accumulated over the years, gifts etc...

Take care about declaring those gifts, because Japan still has gift / inheritance tax. Any interest earned on the savings too, is income that should in theory be declared if above the annual threshold.