RetireJapan

Hi

I've been living in Tokyo for over 10 years and I recently just graduated from college in a local university.
I found a job in a Japanese small-medium real estate company but does not provide a bonus every year and only provide when the company is at a good phase.


Although I understand that since I am inexperienced I decided to settle with it. Enough to pay my bills and student loans.
Thinking about my long-term financial goal, I decided to put 30% in my savings account and invest it when everything's stable.
(Probably will take me a few years as I would also need to think about my emergency fund)

During my research, I learned about forex trading where you can earn extra income instantly. I practiced through DMM demo fx but a language barrier is what gets in the way to master day trading. Still, I'm willing to learn so that I can save enough for my future esp retirement.

I don't want to sound greedy or lazy but I'm trying several ways to earn passive income to help people suffering from poverty or other possible reasons.

But let's get to my questions...^^
1. If you do day trading (forex) in Japan, what platform do you use? and how did you learn?
2. What are the differences between forex trading in overseas (the US, etc) and forex trading in Japan?
3. I learned that I can open an fx account and day tried in the US or Singapore despite that I am Japan resident.
But my concern is, I do not want to be taxed in excessive amounts or do not want the company I worked for to know I am earning extra income.
4. in Japan, if you do not want the company to know your day trading you can apply to do your own withholding tax calculation and the tax office will do the taxations as long as I do not earn 200,000 yen (annually) from day trading. If I do earn over 200,000 yen, I will have to surrender my tax return. (To my best understanding)
5. What are pips and slippage? If I were to put 100,000 yen to day trade, what're best pips amount to set?

Please educate me. I am willing to learn and with this corona pandemic going on, I would like to be always prepared when the same thing happened again in the future.

Thank you in advance.

moly wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 9:24 am

But let's get to my questions...^^
1. If you do day trading (forex) in Japan, what platform do you use? and how did you learn?
2. What are the differences between forex trading in overseas (the US, etc) and forex trading in Japan?
3. I learned that I can open an fx account and day tried in the US or Singapore despite that I am Japan resident.
But my concern is, I do not want to be taxed in excessive amounts or do not want the company I worked for to know I am earning extra income.
4. in Japan, if you do not want the company to know your day trading you can apply to do your own withholding tax calculation and the tax office will do the taxations as long as I do not earn 200,000 yen (annually) from day trading. If I do earn over 200,000 yen, I will have to surrender my tax return. (To my best understanding)
5. What are pips and slippage? If I were to put 100,000 yen to day trade, what're best pips amount to set?

Please educate me. I am willing to learn and with this corona pandemic going on, I would like to be always prepared when the same thing happened again in the future.

Thank you in advance.

I am afraid I cannot help with your specific questions.

I am curious, if you are new to investing why did you decide to start with Forex? It is a more volatile market.


A NISA account can allow you to avoid capital gains tax on conventional stocks.

A Tsumitate NISA account can allow you to avoid capital gains tax on index funds.

An iDeco account can help you invest in index funds while reducing your taxable burden while saving for retirement.


I would recommend paying off loans -> 4-6 months savings -> Nisa - > Ideco => Then consider FX trading

Welcome to the forum. Can't help with FOREX, my impression is that it is time-consuming and you are very likely to lose money in the long run.

Your company should not care about passive income from investing/owning real estate, etc. You may need their permission to do paid employment on the side (depending on your contract) but otherwise I would be very surprised if it mattered.

Thank you! The reason why I thought of starting with Forex is that I thought the earlier the better to master it and earn money asap enough to make for retirement. Indeed I should start off with the first stage to last that you advised.

Thank you so much. I am just worried. I may sound biased or what but just wanted to make sure as I am a foreigner and might taken advantage of because of my limited Japanese language skills.

Forex trading is just gambling really, unless you have a lot of free time to focus on it. It's really a full-time job. If you're just doing it as a hobby, the likelihood is that you're going to lose money (in the long run, as RetireJapan said). I think it's fine to do as a hobby, maybe you'd get good at it, but I don't think it's a good idea to focus on that as your main method of savings right now. I have an acquaintance who made enough money to retire in his 20s trading cryptocurrency. But he does it full time, and he lost everything (and made it back again) in the process. He's also a pretty dodgy character

I echo the advice of others above. It sounds like you have good instincts to save 30% of your income So better to focus first on paying off debts and building up an emergency fund. The emergency fund will save you a lot of stress and give you flexibility to look for more opportunities if you start to worry about how stable / good your job is later. While you are paying of debt / building up your emergency fund, you can learn about investing

Thank you so much for all your advice. Yes I heard Forex trading is gambling so I also had to think about it carefully.
It's best to focus first in paying of my debts and building up an emergency fund:)

adamu wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 2:34 pm Forex trading is just gambling really, unless you have a lot of free time to focus on it. It's really a full-time job. If you're just doing it as a hobby, the likelihood is that you're going to lose money (in the long run, as RetireJapan said). I think it's fine to do as a hobby, maybe you'd get good at it, but I don't think it's a good idea to focus on that as your main method of savings right now. I have an acquaintance who made enough money to retire in his 20s trading cryptocurrency. But he does it full time, and he lost everything (and made it back again) in the process. He's also a pretty dodgy character

I echo the advice of others above. It sounds like you have good instincts to save 30% of your income So better to focus first on paying off debts and building up an emergency fund. The emergency fund will save you a lot of stress and give you flexibility to look for more opportunities if you start to worry about how stable / good your job is later. While you are paying of debt / building up your emergency fund, you can learn about investing

moly wrote: ↑Mon Jun 08, 2020 9:04 am Thank you so much for all your advice. Yes I heard Forex trading is gambling so I also had to think about it carefully.
It's best to focus first in paying of my debts and building up an emergency fund:)

adamu wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 2:34 pm Forex trading is just gambling really, unless you have a lot of free time to focus on it. It's really a full-time job. If you're just doing it as a hobby, the likelihood is that you're going to lose money (in the long run, as RetireJapan said). I think it's fine to do as a hobby, maybe you'd get good at it, but I don't think it's a good idea to focus on that as your main method of savings right now. I have an acquaintance who made enough money to retire in his 20s trading cryptocurrency. But he does it full time, and he lost everything (and made it back again) in the process. He's also a pretty dodgy character

I echo the advice of others above. It sounds like you have good instincts to save 30% of your income So better to focus first on paying off debts and building up an emergency fund. The emergency fund will save you a lot of stress and give you flexibility to look for more opportunities if you start to worry about how stable / good your job is later. While you are paying of debt / building up your emergency fund, you can learn about investing

Good plan! Focus on paying down that debt, and saving.

Can I jump in here with a beginner question?

Kanto wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 10:47 amNisa - > Ideco[/b]

Is there a reason why you recommend Nisa before iDeCo?

IDeCo is a retirement fund. Think RRSP/401k. You cannot access the funds until you are 60.

They are an excellent vehicle for saving, but someone in their 20`s probably does not want to lock away that money right away. So that was directed at the OP.

Anyone 30+, or maybe even 26+...I would recommend IDeco to. I am 32 and went 100% into iDeco and then started a Tsumitate Nisa.

Also, OP said he was interested in FX, very active, and risky trading. iDeco and Tsumitate is all Index and mutual funds. A regular NISA account will allow you to trade regular stocks.


Ben, this website`s founder, has some great primers.
https://www.retirejapan.com/ideco-j401k/
https://www.retirejapan.com/nisa/#:~:te ... a%20profit.