RetireJapan

Greeting all,

I think this has been asked elsewhere (tried to search), but in lieu of not finding it:

Our US based pension/social security —> sent directly to a SMBC Prestia account in USD.

OR

Our US based pension/social security —> sent directly to a SMBC Prestia account into yen (i.e. money is transmitted and converted before it hits here),

OR

a better option? Also, SMBC is just an example bank as we’re still trying to figure out the best English interfaced bank in Japan to work with.

Thanks,

I recently chose to have SS 'check' deposited in yen. My reasoning for this is simplicity--I do several spreadsheets for reporting US-based gains, dividends/distributions, and interest, and while I could do another (for converting a dollar deposit into its yen value on the date of the deposit, I decided to (live dangerously and) try it as a direct yen denominated deposit. This way, for tax reporting here, just add up the total of such deposits and submit that. No need to do the usual, which is to look up the yen/dollar TTM rate for each specific payment date, let the conversion happen, and total it all, and then report that, along with submitting that sheet to show my representation of it. If the NTA wants to know any specifics, they can either look at my bankbook, or ask my bank directly.

The payer appears in my bankbook as: 1/FEDERAL RESE which in their back office is FEDERAL RESERVE, and perhaps also BANK, or BANK OF THE US after that.

Any bank should see the Federal Reserve as pretty legitimate--no money laundering, and not someone dodgy sending money around... (I mean really, what crook/money launderer is going to spoofing the Federal Reserve Bank? Maybe those clever north koreans?!!)

But, tho in all my correspondence with the SS folks I used my full name, somehow on the transfer my middle name was abbreviated to its initial. So JOHN QUENTIN PUBLIC became JOHN Q PUBLIC.

The local branch of my bank called me when the wire arrived, wanting to know who was sending it, what it was for, and so on. Also, they have my My Number card on file, which gives my name (properly, as on my passport) as PUBLIC JOHN QUENTIN. Whereas the wire, somehow/somewhere along the way, got abbreviated to JOHN Q PUBLIC ...and of course the bank said they would really like my full name, not that shortened form of it.

I've emailed my SS contact at the US embassy here about correcting this, but have not heard back yet. Hopefully, it'll be an easy correction to make. And if not, I really hope the bank gets used to the abbreviated version of my name! Maybe after several such deposits have been made?

((Also, my name as it appears on the account, on my bankbook, is not the same as on my My Number card--it's a katakana version of my first and last name only, no middle/no middle initial--created on the fly decades ago. The bank is not worried about this at all. Their desire is for the payee name on the incoming wire to match the name on the My Number card.))

In fairness, I am using my local bank for this, which is a regional bank, not a biggie like I think Prestia is (or Sony, or Shinsei, etc). So the fact that they're calling this out might be a result of them being a regional bank. Had I used a different account/bank it might have never come up.

captainspoke wrote: ↑Thu Nov 23, 2023 10:42 am...

The payer appears in my bankbook as: 1/FEDERAL RESE which in their back office is FEDERAL RESERVE, and perhaps also BANK, or BANK OF THE US after that.
...

I got a mailing from the bank, more complete info on the transfer. There is one section on this paper called 送金依願人, and it reads:

1/Federal reserve bank of NY
2/East Rutherford Operation Ctr
3/NJ, NJ-New Jersey
4/US/07073

The message section does say: Social Security Administration

(all caps for all that)

The exchange rate was excellent--it's dated 11/16 and dividing the yen received by the dollar value indicated in the message box, the rate was 150.82987. Given the time difference, there could be some question as to whether the date was 11/15 at origin, or 11/16 here, as shown, or somewhere in between. The TTM rates now listed here for those dates are 11/15--150.66, and 11/16--151.34, which are averages, and given some intraday movement on either day, I think the rate used was as good as can be expected.

captainspoke wrote: ↑Fri Nov 24, 2023 6:46 am
The exchange rate was excellent--it's dated 11/16 and dividing the yen received by the dollar value indicated in the message box, the rate was 150.82987. Given the time difference, there could be some question as to whether the date was 11/15 at origin, or 11/16 here, as shown, or somewhere in between. The TTM rates now listed here for those dates are 11/15--150.66, and 11/16--151.34, which are averages, and given some intraday movement on either day, I think the rate used was as good as can be expected.

Thanks for sharing this. Good to know that it works so well.