Moving to Japan and selling home advice.

Hello all,

I recently moved to Japan with my family and everyone but me is a Japanese citizen (kids/wife). Before moving we sold our home in the US and signed everything (title/deal with buyer) but still need to wait on closing, so the end payment won’t occur until after we moved but the deal was secured prior to moving.

I have set it up so the gains (profit) from the sale will go into my US bank account. The profit will not garner US capital gains tax since it will be less than $500,000. I am mostly concerned about Japan remittance tax, but am not sure if I will fall under this umbrella since the deal/sale happened prior to me moving to Japan.

I am here under a short term 90 day visa, and intend to get my COE and spousal visa asap, then after I get my residence card open a bank account and transfer the money into Japan from my US bank claiming it was savings earned prior to any connection to Japan (which is true).

I am here for the experts to weigh in on the pitfalls I may/will encounter due to any misunderstandings I have about the laws or things I did not know/think about. I have read another post where the person sold their house similarly (deal made prior to moving, but not house closing) and they stated they had no issues and this was accepted. I will put a summary below of the situation with additional info:

1. Wife is a Japanese resident
2. House deal with buyer/title signed prior to moving to Japan. House was co-owned by wife (additional info).
3. Funds will be paid to my bank account avoiding wife’s.
4. I will be getting my COE/spouse visa and residency card to open my own bank account to transfer funds in, claiming savings funds owned prior to even being a NPR.
5. Funds will primarily be used for purchasing land and building a house in Japan (I read there is an amount non taxable if funds from a home sale go towards the purchase of a new home, but did not know if the land purchase applies to this?).

Will this work? Or will it still be considered remittance in the same tax year and thus subject to the 20% Japan tax?

For more detailed info after paying off all US debt the amount transferred will be around $200,000 US.

Thank you for any information.