Problems with opening an Ideco account\bank account

[Momotaro]

Hi and thanks for all helpful advice in the forum so far.

A little about my background. I have lived in Japan continuously since 2012, I have a 3 year Japanese spouse visa which I will renew in July and I am working for a Japanese company (paying taxes in Japan). However, due to a project abroad I'm currently staying 3 months abroad and every 4th month in Japan and this seems to be causing a problem when trying to open an account.

I first tried to open a bank account with Rakuten and got a phone call from a lady who told me that they could not confirm that I was working at the said company (my mistake, since i have told my company not to let through any phonecalls from investment companies). I told her that I can get an official document from my company to confirm this if needed and explained my situation, but she said that it will take longer than one month to open an account so the next time I'm staying in Japan MORE THAN one month I can try again (this just after I had explained to her that due to the project, I'm staying max 1 month in Japan at a time at the moment).

Today I tried to open an ideco account with Aeon bank, but it seems they are even more strict and told me that if I don't have a permanent residence its not possible, since they consider it a risk that I will move out of the country. They also made it clear that if a foreigner opens an account and decides to move out of the country before he turns 60, he will loose everything he has invested.

Now, I do have a bank account with Sumitomo Mitsui Bank from 10 years back, but since their monthly fee for Ideco and NISA is about 500 jpy, I wanted to open a separate account with Rakuten for this purpose. However now it seems that my only option is to open an Ideco with them. Any other suggestions? And anyone else who has had similar problems?

[RetireJapan]

Hi Momotaro

Eeek, that sounds frustrating.

Well, all the providers I have talked to about iDeCo (Iwate Bank, Rakuten, SBI) have confirmed that if someone were to leave Japan while holding an iDeCo account they would no longer be able to contribute money to the account but any funds would remain and would be able to be managed normally. Once the account holder reaches the age of 60 they can cash out normally and have the funds sent anywhere in the world.

So I presume the Aeon rep was misinformed or perhaps that you should avoid Aeon.

At the moment I believe SBI is the best iDeCo provider, but Rakuten and Monex are extremely close. I would recommend trying to open an account with one of them.

Good luck!

PS you do not need to have a bank account with an iDeCo provider to open an iDeCo account. I recommend Shinsei Bank for their online banking and ATM fee reinbursement.

[Momotaro]

Thanks for the fast reply.

Yes, the lady looked a little confused, so probably not many foreigners who have opened an iDeCo account there before (it was in Okayama, so a little more Inaka compared to Osaka or Tokyo.) Still her comments like “you’re not going to stay here until you’re 60, right?” and general attitude were annoying enough for me to not try to open an account with them again.

Will probably try to open an account with Rakuten or SBI, once my visa has been renewed and see if it makes any difference. If not my only option is Sumitomo.

[RetireJapan]

Ah, you were in a branch? I had a similar bad experience with Resona Bank.

Recommend doing iDeCo stuff online as the bank branch staff don't seem to understand it. The online/call centre specialists are much better trained.

Good luck!