RetireJapan

Hi all

Apologies if this topic has been done to death.
I want to transfer around 5m yen from my UK bank to my Japanese bank (I have both post office and MUFG).
Wise looks to be a great option but there is the 1m yen limit. Or is there?!
Info on the wise website is contradictory:

For transfers above 1 Million JPY, you'll need their:
full bank account name in Latin
SWIFT/BIC code
account number
https://wise.com/help/articles/2932156/ ... -transfers

All transfers to Japan which are over 1 million JPY are now paid out via SWIFT. These transfers incur an additional flat fee on top of our regular % fee. The flat fee differs depending on the currency you’re sending from, and you can see all of the fees below. If your address is in Japan, you can send up to 1 million JPY per transfer.
https://wise.com/help/articles/2969216/ ... with-swift

So my question is, has anyone actually transfered over 1m yen in one transaction with Wise?
Cheers!

I think there are a few things to consider here:

1. If you live in Japan (or actually if the address you registered in Wise is in Japan), then you're not allowed to hold more than 1 million yen in your account, even in different currencies.

2. But according to this page you can hold more than 1 million yen for up to 30 days. You will have to transfer the excess to an external Japanese bank account within 30 days to remain compliant.
https://wise.com/help/articles/3GBSRou4 ... e-in-japan

3. You will pay a cheaper fee if you exchange to yen in Interactive Brokers at market rate, then transfer directly from there to Shinsei. The IB withdrawal fee is zero, and the Shinsei deposit fee is fixed at 2000 yen I think.

4. You will probably be asked by Shinsei about the origin of the money if it is over 1 million yen. I don't know about Wise, but presumably you'll be asked by them to.

5. If your Wise account has a registered address in another country (not Japan) then I think you're allowed to hold more than 1 million yen total.

Sorry if any of the above is inaccurate. I've never personally transferred such a large amount with Wise.

Thanks for your reply.
I have heard before about the IB x Shinsei route, but currently having an account neither of those, I feel it might be a hassle.

The Post Office is expensive, and the exchange rate is terrible.

If I were to go with Wise and do it in several 1m yen transfers, it doesn't seem to wok out too bad. The rate is the actual current exchange rate and the fees are low (0.49% variable + 1.30 GBP fixed fee).
So doing several transfers only works out a thousand yen or so more than doing it all in once.
At any rate this would be much better than the post office or MUFG which seem to offer terrible exchange rates!

IMO you should wire the money, as UK pounds, to a bank like Shinsei or Sony (MUFG may also be okay). The funds will come in as pounds and you can then do the f/x here, which is frequently if not always a better rate.

I think the general wisdom for Wise is that it's cost-effective up to ¥500,000 or so (equivalent), but above that, and especially at ¥5M, a wire will be cheaper, and just one go, not repeated sub¥1M transfers via Wise.

https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/w ... /transfers

Thanks for the advice.
Sounds like a good idea, but how do you wire the money as GBP?
When I transfer the money from my Lloyds account in the UK, the money is automatically converted and sent as Yen by Lloyds (at an unfavourable rate).
I can't see a way to send it as Yen or am I missing something?

Cheers!

Not sure about Lloyds, but when with banks I’ve used, when you want to do an international transfer (using “swift” messages), banks would make one specify the currency in which the money was to be sent.

I think to transfer another currency and keep it in anything but yen, you have to have an account in Japan which will handle this. Prestia offers this type of account. There are other banks also.

As NorthSaver indicated above.

If the Wise Account is registered to an address in Japan, then the Y1M limit applies.
You can maintain any currency in the Wise Account, but the balance can only be over Y1M Equivalent for 30 days at a time.

Also, the Customs Limit of Y10M applies for any transfer.
You have to declare any Cash or Equivalents you bring into the country over Y1M in value on the Customs Form when you arrive... Same with money transfers - the Bank or Financial Institution (in this case Wise) is obligated to report the transfer on your behalf.

Especially if you have lived in Japan for less than 5 years in the last 10 years, you are a Non-Permanent Resident for Tax Purposes, but that means that any Foreign Sourced Income in the year becomes taxable when you transfer funds to Japan, even if those funds are not sourced from that Foreign Sourced Income. All cash is deemed to be Fungible, meaning that the Tax Authority automatically assumes that the transferred funds ARE from that Foreign Sourced Income, and taxable accordingly.

northSaver wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2023 5:49 am
3. You will pay a cheaper fee if you exchange to yen in Interactive Brokers at market rate, then transfer directly from there to Shinsei. The IB withdrawal fee is zero, and the Shinsei deposit fee is fixed at 2000 yen I think.

Sorry to hijack the thread but I am also looking for a more cost effective way to convert and send USD to my Japan Shinsei account. If you have an Interactive Brokers account then this is by far the most cost effective way to exchange foreign currencies into Yen at very cheap rates but I have heard that IB does not like people only using them for currency conversions - they expect you to convert currency to buy products on their platform - not just to convert and transfer to your local account and will suspend your account if they believe you are just using it for currency conversions. Does anyone use IBJ for regular currency conversions and, if so, has IBJ ever threatened to suspend your account?

I asked IB if it would be OK to move a large-ish amount of Euro to my IB account, change it to Yen, then transfer the Yen to my Japanese bank.
They said I shouldn't be using IB as a currency exchange, but did not say anything about penalties or stopping the transfer.
My conclusion is that they may take action if it happens repeatedly, but probably not for one (or 2?) transfers.

Thats with IBKR, but it's probably the same for IBJapan