Job Discussion Forums

[kzjohn]

As for investing in Japan, my brokerage account is not here, it's a US outfit. I've been wiring money there for years, a number of times well over the $10k threshold. I've never been called/questioned on it from either the US or J side.

But then, in apparent contrast to some posters here, I'm completely legal, open, and fully declared about everything. IMO the taxes really aren't so bad, and frankly speaking, Japan has been very good to me. Also, having to travel twice or more each year to make a deposit in your overseas bank seems like a tax in and of itself--I prefer to travel without that kind of limitation.

When someone says 'investing in Japan', that could happen in a couple different ways. Maybe you'd have a local broker/bank and buy their (rather pricey) palette of mutual funds. Or, you could find someone in Japan who can connect you to, for example, the range of Vanguard funds:
https://www.vanguardjapan.co.jp/retail/investment-products/funds.htm
You'd be in Japan, and investing here, but you could at the same time be choosing US stocks, exclusively if you want.

(And actually, DXJ over the last year has outperformed the S&P500.)

[rxk22]

I think you misunderstand a little bit there. I wish to have a brokerage with in Japan. I have a brokerage account in the United States. I do like ETF but I feel at the Japanese ones are not very good. they have too much exposure to automobiles banks and insurance companies. I want exposure to heavy industries such as Mitsubishi and Hitachi. I also want chemical companies such as Asahi kaesei.
also instead of buying the ETF if I could just open a brokerage here and buy the stocks that I wish to have. and yes a lot of other markets are beating the S&P 500. but to be honest capital appreciation is not my priority. dividend growth is. I would rather have my dividends grow every year than the capital to appreciate it. as when I retire I want to live off my dividends and not off selling my stocks. so if you have any information about brokerages in Japan I would love to hear it.

[steki47]

[nicenicegaijin]

[steki47]

[Maitoshi]

I'm not sure what you all are going on about. Japan is the best. It has four seasons, after all.

[kzjohn]

[Shakey]

[kzjohn]

And to make it more relevant to the original post, by simply not giving up residency, you can avoid this supposedly onerous tax.

Keep your PR, collect your pension, and spend the winter months someplace warm and the summer months someplace cooler. Back in Japan for the wonderful spring and fall.

Tax problem solved.

[rxk22]

Nice Gaijn, you actually got me there. I am not sure where I want to retire. If I can't get enough in my Roth to live off of, I may have to depend on SS 9US)and 年金, which may limit what country I can live in. Which really depends on the COL at that time, coupled with the exchange rate with the yen.

With in Japan, I would love to get two cheap condos, one in Okinawa, and one in northern Japan, andsnow bird it up. Again, that depends on my cash flow at the time.

Also, yes Thailand has decent medical tourism thee. Thing is can you afford to be retired there and pay for medical care? As you didn't pay into heir system, so it is all out of pocket. Again, that is something to consider

[stumptowny]

G Cthulhu:

I’ll speak for myself and other Americans in Japan. Japan is taxing some (not fully sure how they are choosing ‘some’) Americans on worldwide assets. This, then, creates a double tax, as these are also paid to the IRS. Your UK example is both convoluted and not applicable.

Gotcha on the tax treaty. Uniformity is nice. Uniform ripping-off is not nice. There are other situations where NEITHER country assesses a tax! Lucky those expats! Unfortunately, just not Japan and the USA. They both do. Hence double taxation.

About “people with this kind of money should be using qualified tax advisors”, two answers for you:

1. Japan side: They did use qualified tax advisors. The Americans selected for double taxation by the NTA. And the tax consultants helped them only to come clean to the NTA. And they didn’t even need the tax advisors for that because the NTA already had all their IRS records! It was really just checking their honesty at that point, for the future. And the Japanese tax consultants couldn’t get around the fines or retroactive nature of the NTA penalties yet assured full compliance every year after in the furthering of assessing double taxation on worldwide assets. this they made clear and the americans sharing their horror story gushed this advice..... always be honest! This is Japan, not the Philippines. Essentially they told the yanks, they got you, now pay up, and pay up every year from here on out. What’s worse, if these victims now want to say, screw you, I’m out of japan, there is a shiny new exit tax for you as well. I’m sure the Japanese tax advisors will have no problem telling this to their American clients either. They really served no purpose to save money. So no, they shouldn’t be using a qualified tax advisor. Only for help with paper work, which you can get for free.

2. American side: it is possible that this may be the way to go to attempt to hide assets. Setting up something like a discretionary trust or any other trick your CPA will divulge and implement, on the shady side of ethics and at the peril of their license. But if your CPA back home is legit, they will be reporting everything as an asset and that will be calculated on your 1040 somewhere, all for the NTA to see should you get that sweet inquiry letter in the mail. If you are loaded, certainly worth a shot. And if you are REALLY loaded, worth a couple of shots until you find a CPA that gets it. wink wink. And who will also be getting your money. Good luck pitching that.

It sounds almost competent of you to keep throwing out “people with this kind of money should be using qualified tax advisors” but under further scrutiny, it’s not. Does nada to avoid worldwide assets from being double taxed.

And did you ever find the correct person who needed your baring of bad news? no comment??

About pm’ing you and paying you for your stellar advice here, I don't think you could pay us to take your advice honestly. but hey, on the bright side, I think the way you carry yourself, in such high regard.... you are already doing great, just in your own way ^_^

got'sta EARN the dough round here and your sales pitch ain’t even got your foot in my door. lol

Rxk222 and nicenice:

S&P’s ETF index fund is the way to go. Ticker is SPDR. It will always outperform over time, given that, for a company to keep ones place on the S&P, it must profit. And so will you. And they are large cap enough to take some beatings unlike some biotech / small cap ETF’s. A no brainer and what I’ll be jumping into down the road when I get into some bigger bucks. Buy. Hold. Forget. Get rid of your broker ASAP. Not needed at all. Same goes for mutual funds. Axe that racket.

Rxk222… your broker back home should be able to set you up with an ETF with a large composition of dividends (fixed income securities) and certainly some equity options. Or just cherry pick equity positions from such an ETF and go from there, like you said. I’d steer clear of a Japanese broker. breadth and volume in japanese stocks has me leery overall in terms of liquidity and I wouldn't take a japanese broker to tell me about american stocks. I steer clear of brokers at home too because that's some old school, gordon gecko stuff. Here’s a nice link for you on div. ETF: http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2014/08/22/choosing-the-right-dividend-etf/

Kzjohn:

thanks for sharing that you’ve crossed the 10k transfer "threshold" a number of times with no inquiry by the NTA. I think this is the amount banks are required to start reporting to the NTA in Japan but there is more at work in the targeting of people actually getting nabbed. Would be nice to know. Or maybe not? Maybe it is just random audits/checking? The old gaijinpot thread and personal accounts (horror stories) seemed to be from upstanding folks who were just unlucky and totally blindsided by the retroactive nature of the penalties they had incurred, not to mention the mere existence of any of this nonsense, which no one is told about until it's too late. There were multiple victims posting in that thread but two of them did live in the same rural area, if I recall, 2 uni profs, so maybe it was their local tax office in cahoots with the NTA in that area or they felt one of the two, or both, were doing something wrong?? I really would like to know more about the cases that have occurred. But your account that you have transferred more and are fine is great information too.

Steki47:

lots of thai doctors, especially the younger ones, are schooled in the west. Once you get past the funky in-take / waiting areas of a thai hospital, and speak directly to the doc, I have found their English is quite good and they have strived for the gold standard in medicine by going to school abroad. I imagine Taiwan would be similar. As we know, communication is not the forte of Japanese (japanese to japanese people as well) and medicine is no different, even though they wield all the technological advancement seen everywhere, the red tape and communication style of Japanese is less than to be desired (agree with you Shakey! Japanese cannot cope with ambiguous situations. I have come across multiple accident scenes in progress and taken control of the scene while multiple onlookers just stood there = does not compute! a private student of mine, who is a chief orthopedist, said most japanese doctors don't know basic first aid /cpr after I told him I did). About your wife, sounds like a comfort thing that may need some soothing. by the time you get that hip replacement, you should be surrounded by young whipper snapper quacks in thailand or taiwan by then. Retiring in those places sounds heavenly frankly.

To the poster about Japan having 4 seasons….. Tokyo has one season: sleep walking through life on auto pilot. Hokkaido and Kyushu are rather stellar but hey, live like a total king in Thailand with the same money! And in paradise, not gotham city (tokyo).

Dollar breaks above 123 yen, 1st time in nearly 8 years. Way to kick off the week.

[steki47]

[rxk22]

I'm in the broker as in being able to purchase stocks with in Japan. my us broker is ok and all but I cannot buy stocks with in Japan. this because the effects on taxes I would like to have a brokerage with in Japan. and no I do not listen to any brokers they are quite possibly the worst people at giving advice. I have been into investing since 1999. I've been around the block. I have been into dividend growth investing which I find to be successful. I am more into dividend investing then I am in to capital appreciation. I would rather live off of passive income then I would be okay with selling my securities.

I like ETFs but I find Ido as well of not better in tthelong rrun. I also pay no fees.
I'vebeen lucky lately. I got into BA, CSX and MMM before they had massive runs. Same with O.
Brokers make commissions selling you possibly poor choices. if you make money that is more a coincidence and it is by direction. brokers do not have your best interests in mind. if you are to look for good investing advice go to Seeking Alpha is a fantastic website for learning about investing.

In Japan Unicharm, Mitsubishi Corporation, Hitachi, Itochu, Kao and some others are great stocks. Not too mention Toyota. they all have a good deal of liquidity. I don't see where you are coming from. The Nikkei has a lot of action as well. You can find a buyer. and in the end a lot of Japanese companies are very well run you just have to look at their annual reports. if you stay on top of the stock you are okay. I like invest and forget but I also like knowing what is going on with my portfolio.

[stumptowny]

rxk..

sounds like you are on top of it. and yes, liquidity doesn't matter much for longer term positions anyway. I think most, if not all of us use a brokerage house (banking inst.) for our transactions and not a broker for advice.. sorry, wasn't sure of your ksa.

remember when there were newspapers with page after page of stock quotes, closing prices? ugh.. that must have been horrendous, waiting for a call from your broker, hoping for the best.. I am aware of SA. there are a number of great sources and not so great, out there. ultimately, the quarterly cc webcast is the best source if you are not just a buy, hold, and forgetter.

steki...

"That one about the old man dying in the ambulance because many hospitals refused to admit him scared me good."

not just that one. many, I'm betting. ambulances here slow down and stop, for politeness, FOR PERFECTLY HEALTHY PEOPLE ON THE SIDEWALK.... forget the dying person in the ambulance. politeness kills here. literally. in the USA, it's get the h*** out of the way. it's like in Japan, people don't yet know what the siren means so the medic riding shotgun has got to get on the bullhorn to train them what is happening as they make there way down the street. these people are utterly feeble at times..

[rxk22]

Stumpy, thanks. Been studying and doing it for 16 years now. Hope I have found a clue or two. If you use a broker for advice, you are so far outa the loop. Really they are quacks as best....

As for liquidity. I think volume is a more important aspect. You can have an ETF with the sum of the parts worth more than the whole. If there isn't anyone buying the ETF, than you have trouble when it comes time to sell. I dont look at any ETFs with low volume.

I am not that old. I remember stock prices being printed, but I always got my quotes online, even in the 1990s.

As for all here; With quantitative easing being endemic in the developed world, savings and bonds are no longer a feasible way to retire. I remember when my savings account made 3% or so APR.My money market yielded 5%. 5%! Now even 1%, which is below inflation, is hard to get. Same with bonds, the US bonds are floating around 2%, and have even dipped below 2%. You ca lose out to inflation at those numbers. One needs to invest in stocks in order to retire. If you don't, pensions and savings alone won't allow you to have a real retirement.


edit, check out this chart on various govt bonds http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/rates-bonds/ I don't see any safe bonds yielding over 2.5% here.