When you’re at a any social gathering, there are do’s and don’ts – certain topics are socially permissible, some certainly are not. Sometimes you’ll find yourself boring the your counterpart when going into great depth about your passion for traditional Japanese Flower Arranging (生花 – ikebana), but you won’t cause any offence. Mention Japanese banking on the other hand, to people living in Japan for any length of time, and you’re likely to bring a party mood to a full-stop very quickly for anyone within ear’s reach.
Banking in Japan for foreigners has been painful at best, and downright torture at worst. There are many reasons for this, for which a whole website alone could be dedicated. This article is here to save you pain and frustration so you can go straight to the source and avail of some of the better retail banking in this country.
What you need
Before setting off on your journey to a branch you will, as is nearly always the case, need to ensure you have your Alien Registration certificate (外国人登録証 – gaikokujin-torokusho). Without that, you are just a tourist in Japan, and you can’t be setting up a bank account when you’ll be gone within 90 days. You should, by law, always have this on you anyway. You also need a recent (6 months) utility bill stating your current home address.
I have experience with 3 banking institutions in Japan. First with Mizuho Ginko (みずほ銀行), then Citi Bank, and finally Shinsei Ginko (新生銀行). Mizuho is a very traditional, long-established part of the Japanese banking furniture. It operates just as the many other domestic banks do in Japan and is the source of much of the frustration people experience. To set up an account with them, you will likely need a decent level of Japanese language ability, an inkan (印鑑), and a truckload of patience. If you open an account with them, any time you go to the desk to perform almost any task, this inkan will be required of you. And of-course the patience I mentioned earlier.
If your Japanese language ability isn’t up to scratch and you’d like online banking as standard, then the Citi bank and Shinsei bank options are great. You wont need an inkan to sign-up and therefore you wont need to bring this with you when performing uncommon transactions. The services provided by these two institutions are bilingual and this also includes the telephone and Internet banking which is provided for you by default with your application.
What services are being offered?
The Citi bank account being referred to here is the Yen Savings/MultiMoney Account. Opening this particular account effectively opens 2 separate accounts. One is for your everyday current account processes, while the other allows you to make deposits in foreign currencies. Why is this useful? If for example you’re intending to visit Europe in 6 months and you believe that the current exchange rate is preferable and you’d like to guarantee how much yen you will effectively be spending at that time, you can transfer money from your yen-savings account into your Euro foreign currency deposit account (FCDA). When you withdraw money (Euro) from the account during your trip, it will be taken by the default from your FCDA. This account can therefore be used, at your own risk, to profit from currency exchange rate fluctuations and to mitigrate currency exchange risk.
The Shinsei bank account being referred to here is Powerflex. When you create a Powerflex account, you will also simultaneously create, as with Citi, a foreign currency savings accounts for each of the major currencies available. Not only that, but there will also be a second savings account called PowerYokin. This 2nd account adds another layer of safety to the access of your money. Funds cannot be withdrawn directly from the account, but rather transferred either by phone- or online- banking to your standing yen savings account.
In summary
There is a lot to say about the negative points of traditional Japanese banking, but really it’s best to focus on the great positives that come with the banks catering for the English-speaking foreigners in Japan. The following is a brief list that details services that currently aren’t, to the best of my knowledge, offered by the traditional banks either at all, or by default:
- Telephone and online banking, in English
- Foreign currency deposit accounts
- Ability to withdraw money while traveling abroad
- No requirement to have an inkan during sign-up or afterwards
- With Shinsei you have FREE 24hr access to withdrawals from their ATM (with Mizuho, you must pay a fee after 6pm or weekends/public holidays for the privilege)
- With Shinsei you have 1+ free domestic bank transfers per month. With platinum accounts, this can be up to 5 or more.
- You can start the account creation process by post or telephone
Please check out the service charges for both Shinsei and Citi. A point to note that (at the time of writing) unless you meet certain requirements with Citi bank, you are charged 2100 yen monthly “account maintenance fee”.
Personal experience
On a purely personal note, I have had a fantastic experience with Shinsei bank. I can’t think of a single problem I’ve had since opening the account about a year ago. Account creation took 20 minutes when I went to the branch and comprehensive English online banking was up and running after only a week.
Disclaimer: GaijinGuide.com and its authors are not affiliated in any way with any banking institution mentioned on this site. We absolutely do not accept any responsibility for your financial management and any costs, implications, complications or otherwise from your reading of any material on this site. The information here is provided as-is with no implied warranty or otherwise. In saying that though, I hope you find it useful : )