RetireJapan

No. I have never heard a thing, but keep in mind I am a diplomat and have no tax liability in Japan under any circumstances - no residence card and no My Number. I have been posted here 3 times and each time and have done multiple wires of substantial sums to purchase cars, lease properties and pay...

Yes, of course it’s possible. I’ve bought cars in Japan using an international wire as well as paid a contractor for a major home renovations in amounts well of 5 million yen. As long as the recipients account can accept international wires, it is a simple as sending any other international wire. D...

Yes, of course it’s possible. I’ve bought cars in Japan using an international wire as well as paid a contractor for a major home renovations in amounts well of 5 million yen. As long as the recipients account can accept international wires, it is a simple as sending any other international wire.

Not to be pedantic, but this is not right. Anyone living in Japan on an Official or Diplomatic visa and anyone on SOFA will not have a My Number (no Zairyu card either) card. All of these people can get Japanese bank accounts and send/receive transfers without issue. In fact, those living in Japan o...

In what way does Japan not recognize US retirement accounts? The technical explanation of the treaty by the US Treasury states the IRAs (and all other similar accounts) are considered “Pension funds” under the treaty (see https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/japante04.pdf Page 11). While it is not the o...

You are absolutely right that used cars are super cheap in Japan. I think this has to do with 2 things. Japanese people, on the whole, strongly prefer new cars which depresses the price of used ones. Also, in the past many, if not most, used Japanese cars were exported to developing countries. Howev...

I’ve flown Turkish dozens of times since they were one of the only options in a previous country I lived in. As you say the service is generally fine and the planes are reasonably new, staff are friendly. Also the lounges in Istanbul are very nice. But the IT systems are a complete disaster. Online ...

Unless the 401k investment options are terrible, it's not a bad idea to leave the account where it is without rolling it over. Employers are required by law to let you continue to maintain 401k accounts (with no contributions of course) so they would not be able to close your account no matter what ...

Just be sure the net income includes more than just the mortgage. You have lots of other operating expenses on a rental unit including insurance, repairs, landscaping, re-investment in appliances and AC units, renovation costs every few years for carpet/flooring/wall paper/painting during which you ...

Okay, well I switched all my financial accounts to the virtual address back in 2021 and it hasn't caused any issues. Do banks have legions of interns googling addresses to see what comes up? Or maybe they use AI these days? In any case, for my primary accounts (Chase for banking, ETRADE for trading...