Americans, how do you invest in Japan?

17 comments

1. If you honestly have no plans to go back to America and you have no ties there, how about looking into naturalizing in Japan as a first step. Then you’ll be able to take advantage of everything on offer.

2. By living here and paying taxes.

3. I keep an investment account back in the U.S. and invest there (I just eat the JPY->USD conversion, sucks but what are you gonna do), however I’m planning to eventually move back/retire in the U.S.

   I’ve never fully understood the complete picture with Nisa and iDeco however the main message I’ve gotten from people that know much more about this stuff than me is that if you’re a U.S. citizen it’s not worth messing with and your best option is just to keep investing with a U.S. investment account.

   If you’re really, seriously dead set on never living in the U.S. again then I would honestly look into naturalizing. It will save you a tremendous amount of financial headache in the long run.

4. Investing as an American is trivially easy (with dollars). Wise to get your money out of the country, then fidelity, Schwab, E*TRADE, Robinhood. Take your pick.

5. I make USD and just invest that in my American brokerage. If you don’t have an account back home, you can open an account with IBKR in Japan and invest that way. There is a ton of info about this in the wiki, I suggest reading that.

6. Simplest option is to open a US based taxable investment account. IBKR is the only free one I know that accepts expats using a foreign address

7. I think you first step should be, at 28, to firstly find a proper job that pays, with no disrespect, more than the bare minimum you are earning now. Secondly, get PR or naturalise. Then think about investing in proper financial instruments.

8. I made a TD Ameritrade account (with my japan address) last year before getting switched to Schwab. Schwab didn’t have any problem with me having a foreign address so perhaps try schwab?

   In both TD’s cases, I had to call customer service because their site will say they don’t service Japan if you plug it in, but it’s a different story if you’re a US Citizen. I have heard on other expat threads that Schwab is the same way.

9. Open an account with Interactive Brokers Japan.

   Buy VT (a single index fund ETF that covers the entire global stock market) whenever you have investable capital, defined as money you won’t need to spend for the next ~5 years.

   Ignore factors like the share price, recent performance, or currency exchange rates. Just invest.

   Do that and you’ll be somewhere between 95% and 100% of the way to optimal behavior.

10. If you’re gonna be permanent here, then just invest locally.

    ふるさと納税
    Nisa

    Whatever.

    Also perfectly fine to live here PR or citizen and not get into investments.

11. Its also going to depend on ones investment style, future plans and eventual exit strategy

    risk assessment for example

    any future family plans is another one

    property ?

12. I get a ¥ 215,000 a month teaching gig.

    Live under the bridge.

    Combine breakfast, lunch and dinner onigiri. Bag of chips and a tall boy beer once in awhile.

    Then prowl around outside restaurants with patios cuz Japanese always leave “Enryo na kata mari” slices of pizza or karage. Chow that then blaze.

    Any bill that comes in that they didn’t take the time to translate into English? Rubbish!! I mean if it was really important and needed to be payed they would have translated it for me? Right!?

    Living the dream! Foot in the door!!

    /s

13. OP has said in comments he won’t tell what Visa he has, but I suspect with the salary and seeing that he is American, I’d suspect he is an ALT. The salary is not that high and I’d hope if you have plans on having a family, kids, etc. you have a strategy lined up to increase your salary.

    With that out of the way, I seriously don’t understand this question. If you’re not planning to move back to America ever, just give up your citizenship and then become Japanese citizen and never deal with these sorts of issues.

    Until then, take the hit and send JPY back to USD, get owned on the forex, but make it up by investing in a much better stock market. Then right before you become a Japanese citizen, send the USD accounts to JPY (making money on the strong USD) and then hold it until you get the JP citizenship cleared and then put it in NISA

14. Wow. The cost of living must be super low there. ¥260k = 1,617.3972 US Dollars
    That’s like rent is a major city here.

15. First thing is naturalize, no point paying exorbitant taxes to Uncle Sam if you have no intention of going back.

16. Can always invest in crypto. Right now is actually a great time to invest in it. Very volatile though compared to stocks so get used to it going up and down 50% a week:)

17. etoro, its simple, world wide market