RetireJapan

I recently tried opening a coinbase account to dip my toes in to the whacky world of crypto currency.
I was a bit miffed to find out that in order to set up an account in Japan you must be a Japanese national.
you have to be a 日本国民. Am I misinterpreting this, or is this genuinely the case?
Can anyone recommend a similar platform for buying crypto in Japan?

Many thanks.

Yeah, I saw that posted somewhere. I'm surprised that is legal, and it's not a good look for an international company.

Bitflyer seems more accepting and fairly easy to use, although they have a limited selection of coins.

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 6:40 am Yeah, I saw that posted somewhere. I'm surprised that is legal, and it's not a good look for an international company.

Bitflyer seems more accepting and fairly easy to use, although they have a limited selection of coins.

Kraken seems to be the preference among cryptoheads.

Bitflyer had poor spreads, and seems not to like American customers based off complainants seen on our sister Reddit site.

I am with bitflyer as they approved me in 2 days. Too lazy to change as I am holding not trading.

I also have an account on Bitflyer, opened four years ago and it was relatively simple (I am not a Japanese national).

But like EmaxisSlim Cultist said, it has only the following cryptocurrencies at the moment:

- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ripple (XRP)
- Ether (ETH)
- Polkadot (DOT)
- Tezos (XTZ)
- Stellar Lumens (XLM)
- NEM (XEM)
- BAT (BAT)
- Ether Classic (ETC)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- Monacoin (MONA)
- Lisk (LSK)

Cheapest fees is Kraken
Most convenient is Bitflyer/Coincheck

Most Japanese platforms have terrible spreads. (Edit: erased comment about KYC wait times)

Also, please note that crypto will complicate your taxes quite a bit if you do lots of trading. There's software out there that tracks all your transactions, but it's a nightmare to standardize data across 3-5 platforms.

MajesticSoup wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 12:35 pm Cheapest fees is Kraken
Most convenient is Bitflyer/Coincheck

Most Japanese platforms have terrible spreads. Also 100% of them will require a week to two week long "know your customer" process.

Also, please note that crypto will complicate your taxes quite a bit if you do lots of trading. There's software out there that tracks all your transactions, but it's a nightmare to standardize data across 3-5 platforms.

I was able to buy on Bitflyer within 48 hours, with a linked bank account. I am not American and used a Japanese driver's license.

Ah, I stand corrected! I'll edit my post. It took me anywhere between 1-2 weeks to sign up for 4 different exchanges (including KYC processing) so I assumed it was the norm.

I'm not really interested in doing too much trading, I'm more interested in diversifying my investments.
It seems like Kraken has the widest range of cryptocurrencies on offer out of the main exchanges, so I think I'll give them a try.
Hopefully I have a bit more luck than I did with coinbase.

It took a couple of tries with the verification process, but in the end Bitflyer took about 48hrs for approval.
The Lightning spreads are better than the regular ones.

Kraken has a great coin selection ... if you're NOT in Japan. For Japan residents it's limited to 5 (yes, five) coins. Link

I've been using Coincheck for 5 years now, and I find the interface great. The spreads, not so much. 16 coins is nothing to write home about, but I find it's sufficient for my needs.