Moving investments out of Japan
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2022 12:25 am
I am an Australian living in Japan (long term resident with PR). I have investments with Rakuten Securities and Monex, a mixture of Japanese stocks, US stocks, eMaxis Slim index funds, and a small amount of other mutual funds I bought from Shinsei held with Monex.
If I were to move back to Australia, I was wondering what I would need to do with my investments. According to Rakuten Securities, unless you can prove your move is temporary (like your job is sending you overseas for a few years) then you have to sell your holdings and close your account. https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/suppo ... -resident/. Even if the move is temporary, there’s a limit on how long you can keep it open. The banks I use (Rakuten Bank and Shinsei Bank) also want you to close your accounts if you leave, so I can’t just hold a bunch of JPY if I sold either. I have a Mizuo account, which I haven’t checked if I can keep open, which might be an option. But at any rate, if I did leave but could hold money here, it would be temporary as I’d prefer to have at least some of it invested.
The problem is, as you are probably aware, the JPY is extremely weak right now. It’s a little better to the AUD than the USD but it’s still not great. And the S&P500 is down quite a bit. So if I were to sell my US stocks or eMaxis All Country index fund it would be bad, and if I were to sell Japanese stocks and convert JPY to AUD it would also be bad. I’d really like to hold on to everything for at least a while longer hope the JPY and the S&P500 recover.
I discovered Monex has an Australian branch (https://www.monexsecurities.com.au/) and I contacted them about it. They said they can transfer my holdings - but just the Japanese and US stocks, not the mutual funds - for a fee of A$1000. Sounds like they just pulled that out of thin air, but anyway, it seems like a cost-effective way of getting my investments over without having to sell, convert to AUD, transfer over to Australia, and reinvest. I could perhaps sell my eMaxis Slim index funds and buy equivalent index fund ETFs (see this post viewtopic.php?t=1453) and then should be able to transfer all of my holdings over. I’ll have to pay Japan taxes for the sale of the index funds of course.
This next question is related, but only relevant for Australians so feel free to skip this. I also was thinking about investing on the ASX, in case the move happens, as this would give me less to move over. For any other Aussies here, were you able to successfully set up an account anywhere from overseas? The NAB say I can use NABTrade if I trade on the ASX only, and what I’ve read on the ATOs website seem to suggest this is totally OK to do this, as long as I pay taxes on capital gains in Japan while I’m a non-resident in Australia. I’m having issues setting up a NABTrade account (I can’t seem to receive SMSes sent from Australia here, despite turning off international SMS blocking with my mobile provider). All other non-bank brokers I’ve looked at (CMC markets, Stake, SelfWealth) don’t support non-residents. The only one I can find that does (Pearler) is a new startup and charge A$200 to setup an account if residing overseas, so there is at least that one option aside from NABtrade. Pearler is CHESS-sponsored though. Do you know of any others that can be used from overseas while a non-resident for tax purposes in Australia?
Has anyone tried to move their investments back to their home country? How did you manage to do it?
If I were to move back to Australia, I was wondering what I would need to do with my investments. According to Rakuten Securities, unless you can prove your move is temporary (like your job is sending you overseas for a few years) then you have to sell your holdings and close your account. https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/suppo ... -resident/. Even if the move is temporary, there’s a limit on how long you can keep it open. The banks I use (Rakuten Bank and Shinsei Bank) also want you to close your accounts if you leave, so I can’t just hold a bunch of JPY if I sold either. I have a Mizuo account, which I haven’t checked if I can keep open, which might be an option. But at any rate, if I did leave but could hold money here, it would be temporary as I’d prefer to have at least some of it invested.
The problem is, as you are probably aware, the JPY is extremely weak right now. It’s a little better to the AUD than the USD but it’s still not great. And the S&P500 is down quite a bit. So if I were to sell my US stocks or eMaxis All Country index fund it would be bad, and if I were to sell Japanese stocks and convert JPY to AUD it would also be bad. I’d really like to hold on to everything for at least a while longer hope the JPY and the S&P500 recover.
I discovered Monex has an Australian branch (https://www.monexsecurities.com.au/) and I contacted them about it. They said they can transfer my holdings - but just the Japanese and US stocks, not the mutual funds - for a fee of A$1000. Sounds like they just pulled that out of thin air, but anyway, it seems like a cost-effective way of getting my investments over without having to sell, convert to AUD, transfer over to Australia, and reinvest. I could perhaps sell my eMaxis Slim index funds and buy equivalent index fund ETFs (see this post viewtopic.php?t=1453) and then should be able to transfer all of my holdings over. I’ll have to pay Japan taxes for the sale of the index funds of course.
This next question is related, but only relevant for Australians so feel free to skip this. I also was thinking about investing on the ASX, in case the move happens, as this would give me less to move over. For any other Aussies here, were you able to successfully set up an account anywhere from overseas? The NAB say I can use NABTrade if I trade on the ASX only, and what I’ve read on the ATOs website seem to suggest this is totally OK to do this, as long as I pay taxes on capital gains in Japan while I’m a non-resident in Australia. I’m having issues setting up a NABTrade account (I can’t seem to receive SMSes sent from Australia here, despite turning off international SMS blocking with my mobile provider). All other non-bank brokers I’ve looked at (CMC markets, Stake, SelfWealth) don’t support non-residents. The only one I can find that does (Pearler) is a new startup and charge A$200 to setup an account if residing overseas, so there is at least that one option aside from NABtrade. Pearler is CHESS-sponsored though. Do you know of any others that can be used from overseas while a non-resident for tax purposes in Australia?
Has anyone tried to move their investments back to their home country? How did you manage to do it?
See the "手続きを完了せずに出国された口座、非居住者であることが判明した口座への対応" section. You won't be able to trade, they will sell your products they don't think you can own any more, and they won't give you the withholding tax back.