RetireJapan

Hi Everyone,
Just getting into opening accounts with Rakuten Securities and Monex and wondering about the insurance for these online brokers. As far as I can see on their websites, accounts are only insured to 10 million JPY (JIPF standard). Does anyone know if they have additional insurance on top of this for accounts similar to American online brokerage firms....most claim over 100 million USD insurance on accounts.
I imagine if most people are investing through these firms with their life savings, that accounts will easily go over 10 million JPY. Any thoughts/information appreciated.

My limited understanding is, that this is mostly an issue with hard cash. But if the broker is not doing any fraud or illegal things, your stocks, etfs and fund participation should be safe even in the term of a bankruptcy (as you own them and not the broker). The FSA is responsible/has regulations ins place that in the case of a bankrupt broker (or bank) those assets will be transferred to the rightful owner. The same should be the case for management companies and also banks that hold the funds.

But I cam curious to here other peoples opinion/thoughts!

Any other comments? I am thing about starting an account at a foreign broker, just for some diversification and not rely on one the banking regulations of a single country.

I've got accounts abroad, for diversification/paranoia purposes. All the investments are accumulation ETFs so don't produce dividends. No intention of selling (ever?) so no tax paperwork for now until they reach 50m yen (not for a while!).

But if you are going to use them more actively, the paperwork can be a bit of a pain compared to having a tax-reporting account with a broker in Japan.

I would do the same (ETFs) - good I am not the only one with paranoia

I'm also interested in this, would be nice to have some official links to the docs. The jackpot would be an English FSA page explaining the rules.