RetireJapan

Shonai Bank has no penalties for early repayment, but...

https://youtu.be/EedWDRcqBVI?si=8gU1s3NZjQAPLz7J

Past performance does not guarantee future returns (in fact, it might make them less likely). Sounds like your wife was very lucky this time. In similar situations my parents in law were put into Turkish Lira bonds, with less desirable results. See how that fund is doing in 5, 10 years time compared...

I have all three but mainly use Rakuten, largely out of laziness

No, but I would like to! I clearly don't qualify to pay Class 2 under the posted rules, as I never worked in the UK but came here straight from uni...

My answer is pretty tough, but the only recommendation i can give if you are under the age of 50 is learn to trade against the indexes on cfds or future contracts. It will take a few years to learn your edge, but with Micro contracts and online firms you can seriously decrease the risk. When you ta...

Found this explanation helpful: https://youtu.be/hVXGBB8b-v0?si=-1A-RJtcrFqWW-Gg

Just checked for Miyagi and this will not make all that much difference after all. Phew.

Eeeek. This would... mess up my plans somewhat

Don't sell it, the Japanese tax office will really go after you especially if you have been reporting it in your yearly tax return with depreciation. Although you probably will be able to subtract the capital gains tax you paid in the UK from anything owed in capital gains in Japan. I'm not plannin...

Looks like UK state pension is not taxed in the UK for non-residents.

So Japanese income taxes. I'm guessing it would qualify for the nenkin deduction.