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Aug 26, 2020

Do you want to invest money while living in Japan?

Earlier this year I wrote this blog about investing money in Japan: https://www.city-cost.com/blogs/helloalissa/GO9lX-living_money_japan2020 My questions are: Have any of you invested in the NISA? If yes, was it very difficult to do in Japanese? If no, would you be interested in investing in NISA if there was information available to do so in English? Thank you!

helloalissa

helloalissa

Kanji and design nerd.

18 Answers



  • genkidesu

    on Aug 26

    I don't know that I would personally, the only reason for that is that neither my husband or I are permanent residents, so we're dependent on visas right now. If we were more permanent expats, then I think I'd definitely look into ways to invest within Japan - but the information would need to be in English for me to be comfortable with it.

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  • TonetoEdo

    on Aug 26

    @genkidesu The little information I could find in English indicates that NISA is available to residents of Japan. The information doesn't indicate that you would have to be a permanent resident. I'm going to research a bit more. There's some information here - https://www.retirejapan.com/nisa/

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  • genkidesu

    on Aug 26

    @TonetoEdo thank you! I'll have to check out the link.

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  • helloalissa

    on Aug 27

    Right, you don't need PR, but you probably wanna be here for a while if you're going to bother setting up an investment account. https://smartmoneyasia.com/2017/08/07/nisa-the-japan-individual-savings-account/ This is another site I found with good info, but it's still a bit intimidating to apply in Japanese. I can enlist my husband to help me if I ever make a decision... He said he found one brokerage firm that has info in English too.

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  • JapanRamen

    on Aug 27

    I am interested but just find it scary when I don't know what I am buying into. If there is more information and even someone to speak to answer questions (but without taking like a crap ton of agency/consultant fee) that would be a lot more encouraging

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  • genkidesu

    on Aug 28

    @helloalissa that's definitely the hard part for me - I don't know how long we'll be here for :( we initially thought we'd be in Japan only one year, and seven years later...here we are! I'll have to research it more, but it's encouraging that you don't need PR.

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  • ReishiiTravels

    on Aug 31

    I would be interested if there was more info available in English!

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  • neko

    on Sep 6

    Considering how banks here give almost no interest, I would love to see another option with security!

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  • Striffy

    on Sep 23

    I would definitely be interested in looking into investing in Japan with more English on the website (for example how to set up the account etc.). Although my Japanese might not be too bad I still would wanna be sure to do everything right to not misunderstand anything.

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  • helloalissa

    on Oct 3

    I'm still interested in doing this, although an unexpected move means I need to quit my job and don't have a regular income now. It's put on hold, but I will possibly make something to walk through the steps when my husband or I set up a NISA.

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  • Sanrio

    on Oct 3

    I looked into buying stocks but the language barrier is really scary! Would be interested otherwise.

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  • BigfamJapan

    on Nov 25

    I have investments back home, but I suppose when I really think about it would probably be better for me to have them here. I did look into it a few years ago, but that info would already be outdated now. I don't have an overall good impression from then, but I was also only understanding about 80%. The biggest hurdle here is trust, or rather the lack of it. It is definitely not as safe as Ireland where there are a lot more rules and regulations, even guarantees, to protect the investor. Here things can go belly up overnight and its "ALL your money's gone, shou ga nai"

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  • helloalissa

    on Dec 11

    @Saitama I thought that was the case with stock investing in general, but good point. Do you mean that Japan doesn't have some type of insurance against banks going under (like the DIC)? I definitely don't understand enough about that type of thing in the US, never mind here. It's a headache for sure.

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  • Nice

    on Jan 10

    I checked out your blog, and it's informative and good to know some of the tips that could lead to financial freedom. Also, I'm very interested in investment, and since I am not sure how long I will be living in Japan, and with my poor Japanese skill, it's a bit scary to invest without formal investment knowledge at the same time the language skill. So, If there are available English guidelines and tips for NISA, I would definitely check it out too.

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  • kcsantosh

    on Jan 29

    Thanks for the link, i will check out.

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  • park

    on May 19

    I would like to because there are a lot of opportunities out there that we might miss out on. There are a lot of things that can be talked about there given that the economy is pretty good compared to other powerful countries. It’s pretty fun to see that there are some changes in what people want to invest in as there are also some people who will talk about cryptocurrencies here which is pretty good if you know what to invest in. Make sure that you have a good perspective on it though for maximum success all over there. Reference: https://bitcasino.jp/blog/the-distinct-characteristics-of-cryptocurrency/

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  • Eli

    on Feb 3

    I started investing in NISA this year. As my Japanese is quite good it was not difficult or I would rather say it was the same difficulty as if I had information in English, as in general investing is not an easy topic I´d say.

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  • helloalissa

    on Feb 13

    @Eli It's not an easy or natural topic for me in English either. Good to know you could get through it in Japanese - the only one here! I'm guessing it's fairly rare for foreigners.

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