RetireJapan

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well.

Has anyone transferred shares from a broker outside Japan to Rakuten?

I'm thinking of doing it because my broker in the UK has informed me that
updating one's contact details to a non-UK residence would affect the account in two ways:

1) I would not be allowed to top up my account (add money).
2) I would not be able to fill out the W-8BEN form necessary for US stocks, and therefore would have to sell them off, I guess.

Any thoughts / advice / sharing of your experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I think Rakuten-sec does not allow transfers of "positions" (=investments) between brokers as in the ACATS system (which works among US brokers).
See:
https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/c ... _to_japan/

Therefore, you will have to sell your "positions" into cash, transfer the cash into some bank; if bank is not Japanese, you would have to then transfer to a Japanese bank that Rakuten-sec deals with. From that Japanese bank you would transfer the cash to your Rakuten-sec account, and then buy whatever funds you want.

Katana wrote: ↑Fri Sep 08, 2023 3:52 am 2) I would not be able to fill out the W-8BEN form necessary for US stocks, and therefore would have to sell them off, I guess.

I don't think this means you have to sell the stocks, just that you pay the higher withholding tax on dividends (30%).