RetireJapan

My US bank will not allow me to conduct any international wire transfers to Japan unless I confirm the specific bank I want to send funds to in person. This means that I would have to go back to the US, meet with the bank manager and confirm and notarize some paperwork. After I do this I would be able to wire funds to the Japanese bank in the future.

Has anybody else experienced this and/or found a way around it? I know I could set up a Wise account but the fees would be higher than a direct wire transfer to a dollar sub account, so I rather not.

Yuk. Only thing I can think of would be a limited power of attorney, hoping that it'd be cheap (something you could find online to use), and the bank would then accept that.

An update on this: they allowed me to notarize the required documents at the US Embassy in Tokyo and mail it to them. It cost me 50 bucks plus travel expenses. So it’s doable, but it would be a bummer if you lived way out in the countryside somewhere and had to travel long distance to Tokyo.