I'm not an american citizen, but I lived and worked in the U.S for about 3 years before coming to Japan. I moved to Japan in mid-2016, and left about 45,000 USD in a regular checking account with Chase bank. At the time of moving to Japan I had plans to eventually return to the U.S., and thought it would be better to just keep the money there. However, it's been already almost 9 years, I'm not going back to the U.S., and I really regret that I never put that money to work for me. However, it's not too late to take action, and I want to do it now.
The first thing I tried was contacting Chase to sign up for one of their investment accounts, but they refused since I'm no U.S. citizen, no resident, and have no taxpayer number. So now I'm trying to bring the money to Japan and invest it here.
First step: Bringing the money to Japan
- If possible, I'd like to keep it in USD, and I've learned that banks like Prestia and Rakuten have multi-currency accounts which I could use.
- First question would be: is there really a benefit in keeping the money in USD? I prefer to do after seeing how the yen's been declining, but would like to know other perspectives.
- Second question is: when I transfer the money, will I need to pay taxes on it? My understanding is no. In any case, do I need to declare it somewhere? Are there any procedures in Japan that I need to be aware of once the money transfer is complete?
Second step: Opening a brokerage account
- This is where I get confused. I'm doing Tsumitate NISA now (the old one) with Rakuten using their "iSPEED" app. It's already maxed out. My understanding is that when doing NISA, you are also required to open a so called "Tokutei Kouza", and that there are two types: "tax witholding" and "not witholding".
- So my first question is, how can I know which type my account is? Can't find it anywhere in the app.
- The second question is, can I use that same account as my brokerage account while I still do NISA? If the answer is yes, how can I link this brokerage account to my local funding account in Japan (after setting it up)? If the answer is no, would I need to open a new brokerage account with, let's say SBI?
- Finally, can I start investing all the 45k USD from the beginning? Or is it like NISA where I need to do monthly payments and there is a yearly cap? If I need to withdraw the money, what are the conditions to do?
Would be very thankful if someone could explain to me how to realize each step
