I'm moving to the US, will need to move 7,500,000 JPY from Japan and convert to USD when I move. Need some advice

[Faxingberlin_]

Hello all,

I got a job and will be moving to the US in the next few months when my work VISA comes through and I need some advice about moving my money to the US also. I am an Irish citizen and have been living and working in Japan for the past four years. In total my assets are 7,500,000 JPY in cash in Japan, some crypto and some stocks in an international interactive broker’s account. Most of my assets are in cash currently. All of my money is from my job salary I have no side income. Most of the cash is in a shinsei bank account, but I also have an smbc (三井住友銀行) bank account, which I use for the flat 800 yen fee to transfer to interactive brokers international account. I checked transferwise(wise) and there would be exchange rate and transfer fees of 6,000 yen per 1,000,000 yen roughly.

The only two sensible ways of moving the money I can think of currently are with wise - transfer JPY, then convert to USD and withdraw to US bank account once there and set up, or

Transfer the money through SMBC to interactive brokers, paying the 800 yen transfer fee, then convert the JPY to USD in interactive brokers and then withdraw to a US bank account once in the US. I'm not even sure if this is possible though and if it would be cheaper or not.

Are there any other options? What would be the cheapest option?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[captainspoke]

https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/w ... /transfers

It's been a while since I've sent money abroad, and things do change, but according to that wiki, shinsei is still one of the best choices, especially for a larger transfer.

Since you say your funds are there, then you probably have platinum status, which means you get free international transfers (monthly?). Along with that, and their typically good exchange rates for platinum customers--and since you already have an account with them--I would think that they'd be the best choice. By far, really.

You can go ahead and change into US$ at will, and leave that parked in a dollar sub account. I'd maybe want to test the transfer process first with the US$ equivalent of about a million yen, to make sure it works, and to see if there are any hurdles such as required ID, my number, and so on. Then wire the rest when you decide it's time for that.

You'll have to clear with shinsei that they'll wire $ to IB using the proper SWIFT and bank codes for that from IB (should be fine, but just in case). Also that IB will have no problem with this kind of incoming transfer. Good luck!

[Faxingberlin_]

Thanks for the reply! I dont have platinum status, I have gold. You need 40,000,000 in assets to get platinum it says. So I don't have free international transfers I am assuming but I cant actually see where I can check. Does this change your answer? I have no idea how much a paid wire would be in this case and would there be a limit anyway making multiple wires necessary?

So in this case it seems like the best method would be transfer from shinsei to SMBC, then do the foreign remittance online for 800 JPY to transfer to IB, then buy USD and then transfer to a US bank account, I'll call IB and see if this is possible. Is there a limit to the amount that you can remit for the 800 yen fee for SMBC?

[Beaglehound]

Might be worth checking out Sony Bank, with the disclaimer that although I have an account (super easy to set up) I haven’t used them for that purpose. You would get gold status simply by depositing the amount you have with them, and that gets you reduced fees and preferential rate. Worth a look for comparison I would say.

https://moneykit.net/en/guide/fct_out/

[RetireJapan]

So in this case it seems like the best method would be transfer from shinsei to SMBC, then do the foreign remittance online for 800 JPY to transfer to IB, then buy USD and then transfer to a US bank account, I'll call IB and see if this is possible. Is there a limit to the amount that you can remit for the 800 yen fee for SMBC?

For large transfers, Shinsei can be a better deal even than Wise. I would look into transferring directly from Shinsei to IB or a US bank account in USD.

Or use Wise to move the money to your virtual US account.

[captainspoke]

(1)...platinum status, ...

(2) So in this case it seems like the best method would be transfer from shinsei to SMBC, then do the foreign remittance online for 800 JPY to transfer to IB, then buy USD and then transfer to a US bank account, I'll call IB and see if this is possible. Is there a limit to the amount that you can remit for the 800 yen fee for SMBC?

(1) You can get platinum status by holding dollars, so do that soon. I forget the exact amount, but I think it's the equivalent of a few hundred thousand yen. Convert that threshold amount for platinum into dollars right now (it may take a month or so to then achieve platinum based on ongoing average balances).

Once you get platinum convert the rest, given the needs of your timeline for the move, and then do the wire transfer.

The exchange rates may look 'close enough', but even 0.35 difference in rates (for your total amount), comes to over ¥20,000 difference for the whole thing.

(2) That could be better (or the same), but you'll have to check with SMBC for any limits (and you'll then be relying on IB's f/x rates).

[Faxingberlin_]

Thank you all for the great advice. I calculated the cost of doing this with Shinsei Bank, Sony Bank, and IB. The cheapest way would be to set up a Sony Bank account, move the money there, get gold status and then exchange to USD, then do the 1 free remittance per month into my IB account which can they do 1 free remittance into a US bank account once I am there. Sony bank would be cheaper than the rest by over 30,000 JPY.

The next cheapest is actually IB not Shinsei. With Shinsei, the first 3,000,000 JPY would have the 0.117% exchange rate and then it would be platinum status and it would be 0.007% on the remaining 4,400,000 JPY, however this works out more expensive than doing it within IB. The difference would be roughly 3000 - 4000 JPY cheaper with IB. This is not taking into account remittance fees (I can't find any information on the maximum remittance allowed in one transaction for the 800 JPY SMBC online transfer).

Shinsei bank (platinum status method) actually comes in third for me.

Wise is the most expensive and worst way to do this.

so it is:

1 - Crypto (?)
2 - Sony bank
3 - IB
4 - Shinsei Bank
5 - Wise

However there is a fourth method, which is crypto. The theory is that it would work like this. I have a bitflyer (and Kraken) accounts in Japan and I already own some BTC and ETH so I am familiar with crypto, wallets and how it works. I transfer my money to the exchange and buy LTC (Litcoin - super fast and extremely cheap transaction fees for going to USD later on - $0.03) with JPY. I transfer the LTC to my Exodus wallet (supports LTC) I then transfer to a US exchange which I will set up (maybe about $0.40 transfer fee x2), I still need to find the best exchange in the US if I can even set that up. If I have to be resident in the US to set up an exchange there, that could be an issue, but I have a family member so potentially I could do it through their exchange. Then exchange the LTC for USD cost should be $0.03. Then I withdraw that money to either a US bank account or maybe my IB account if that is possible (not sure if that is possible as the bank account would probably be in my name). If the IB way is not possible, I would need to be in the US and have a bank account in order to do this but I am not sure if the banks here in Japan would allow me to leave Japan with the accounts still open and the money in there. Another option could be the Wise virtual bank account - withdraw the USD to there from the US crypto exchange. This entire process should take a matter of minutes so fluctuations in the price of LTC should not be an issue.

I will update to see if this can work.

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

So in this case it seems like the best method would be transfer from shinsei to SMBC, then do the foreign remittance online for 800 JPY to transfer to IB, then buy USD and then transfer to a US bank account, I'll call IB and see if this is possible. Is there a limit to the amount that you can remit for the 800 yen fee for SMBC?

For large transfers, Shinsei can be a better deal even than Wise. I would look into transferring directly from Shinsei to IB or a US bank account in USD.

Or use Wise to move the money to your virtual US account.

If you go over your monthly limit with Shinsei, I think at first it is set at about 1.2 million yen, you have to go through the time consuming reapproval of your income- Tax returns, pay slips and my number. I am sure most of this is Japanese finance ministry inspired but it is such a pain even if you only want to go not that much over for a bank transfer.

[captainspoke]

If you go over your monthly limit with Shinsei, I think at first it is set at about 1.2 million yen, you have to go through the time consuming reapproval of your income- Tax returns, pay slips and my number. I am sure most of this is Japanese finance ministry inspired but it is such a pain even if you only want to go not that much over for a bank transfer.

That's news to me, so things do change. It sounds like you've pursued this thoroughly--congrats on that, and for checking back in here to show what you've found.

Good luck!

[Faxingberlin_]

So in this case it seems like the best method would be transfer from shinsei to SMBC, then do the foreign remittance online for 800 JPY to transfer to IB, then buy USD and then transfer to a US bank account, I'll call IB and see if this is possible. Is there a limit to the amount that you can remit for the 800 yen fee for SMBC?

For large transfers, Shinsei can be a better deal even than Wise. I would look into transferring directly from Shinsei to IB or a US bank account in USD.

Or use Wise to move the money to your virtual US account.

If you go over your monthly limit with Shinsei, I think at first it is set at about 1.2 million yen, you have to go through the time consuming reapproval of your income- Tax returns, pay slips and my number. I am sure most of this is Japanese finance ministry inspired but it is such a pain even if you only want to go not that much over for a bank transfer.

Do you mean domestic or international transfers when you say monthly limit? My domestic daily limit with Shinsei is 2,000,000