RetireJapan

I am originally from Europe but have been living in Japan for some time now. Recently, I developed an interest in personal finances after watching your YouTube channel and reading through your forum, which led me to open and maximize a NISA account using Rakuten. First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude for the fantastic work you do with your forum, blog, and YouTube channels. Your content has been very helpful for my financial planning.

As I might leave Japan in the next few years and won't retire here, I'm contemplating opening an account with IBKR instead of investing further in my Rakuten Tokutei account. The reason behind this decision is that I believe this will help when I have to sell my NISA investments and purchase similar products through IBKR once I leave Japan. I guess that if I already have an account in IBKR this process will be faster and smoother.

Does this plan make sense to you?

Additionally, I have concerns about the tax filing process in Japan since Interactive Brokers only offers an Ippan Account. If I invest in ETFs or mutual funds through IBKR that automatically reinvest dividends, will I still be required to report my investments in Japan?

If I do not have to report, I am considering starting investing via IBKR for the coming years after maximizing the new NISA accounts from 2024. Does this sound reasonable to you?

Thank you very much!

IBKR US have stopped accepting new accounts from Japan residents, and informed current account owners that their accounts will be transferred to IBKR Japan.
Initially the deadline was APR-2023, but the plan seems to suffer some delays ...
So IBKR may not be your ideal solution, especially as IBKR Japan only proposes a small subset of the complete IBKR offer (for example, most of US REIT are not available).