Just wanted to give any other foreigners a heads up regarding this bank. Disclaimer: I'm not qualified to give any kind of financial or other advice, and you should do your own research and consult with qualified experts before deciding what course of action is best for you.
I previously delved into this area regarding that bank claimed to be foreigner friendly but is actually hostile to foreigners, and so want to share my other experiences around banks, to try and help other foreigners avoid a bit of covert-sakoku pain.
Japan Post Bank, a.k.a "Yucho" (the name I'll use for the rest of this report), is one of the often recommended banks for foreigners (the other one is the bank whose name starts with "shin" -- and which you should strongly avoid). I've been using Yucho for a couple of years, and they've got some pros and a lot of cons, so thought I'd lay it all out here.
Firstly, signing up is so-so. I've previously signed up for a bank account at a local small bank before, which involved a short form and a helpful staff member, taking less than an hour and leaving with an account ready to use. I still think that's the best way to go. Find a small local bank which someone you know banks with, especially an older reputable Japanese person (could be your landlord), and go with them. But at least with Yucho they have a moderately-functional online system with some English assistance that kind of works. It was less painful than I expected for Japan (still fairly painful, in contrast to all other non English speaking countries I've previously created bank accounts in).
They provide you with an online application process with some English help (and an online process is itself a help since you can use automatic Google Chrome - Google Translate to help you), that ultimately outputs its results as a big PDF that you print out and mail to them (don't laugh -- this is relatively high tech for the banking/finance/accounting sector in Japan, who only as of this year lets you store your receipts digitally rather than either storing them as paper for 7 years or going through some bullshit bureaucratic process to get approved to e-store... seriously what? I bet some of these pricks only recently stopped using gas lanterns). Roughly a month after I mailed that form, I got back second stage paperwork. After completing that and mailing it, I got a cash card. Note: not a bank card in the modern 21st century sense, just a "cash card" that only works with ATMs but cannot be used for purchases or anything else -- for that you'd have to go through another process, and its better just to get a credit card from another company (separate thread incoming).
They advertise that you don't need to use a seal (hanko) to create an account, but to be clear, absolutely you should supply your hanko impression when you create an account. Otherwise if you try to set up a direct debit system e.g. for tax, those systems always use a hanko, so you'll have to visit Yucho in person to register your stamp if you fail to do this during account creation. Don't use a hand signature even though they say you can; use a seal (hanko).
Yucho asks you a billion questions to get an account. In the paperwork process I had to answer questions as inane as how many staff the company that I work for has, and what their total capital was (how the hell would I know? I don't own the damn thing). You'll also have to answer a dozen inane questions about how you'll use the account and what for, including your transaction profiles (how often and how much). It's very irritating. And proudly, comically, drooling-at-the-mouth stupid -- they really think that crap is going to stop crooks using their bank? My favourite was the bit where they ask about 10 different questions about if you're a gangster, or a terrorist, or a gangster terrorist (yes, a "gangster terrorist", what? what even is that?), etc. Like that's going to help anything. Committing to full-retard status I guess. Moving on.
You will also run into a problem, albeit a rare one, if you're employed by a foreign company, when it comes to your company's address. The only address you can really put in that case, if they don't have a local office, is your home address, since you can't enter a foreign address. For some questions you might find you have no idea how to answer. For example (I don't remember if this was for this bank or just another application I did), asking for the type of the company you work for -- but the list of options may be very old and not list new forms of companies that now exist like a goudou-kaisha. In these cases I just answered closest I could, and they never called me up about it or checked or anything.
All in all, the obstructionism I felt last time I signed up at a small local bank was much much smaller. I'd say as a basic rule: (a) don't sign up for any bank ever recommended online for foreigners, and (b) try local small banks first. Beyond that, make sure you keep all your foreign bank accounts and credit cards active for whenever you might need to use them, since banking technology and paranoia levels are far better outside of Japan, by a factor of about 3. I wouldn't recommend you sign up for any Japanese "neo" bank, e.g. Sony, on the sole basis that you've got no in-person recourse if they treat you badly and freeze your account merely on the basis of you being a foreigner, which can happen any time. I'd also consider keeping a significant amount of your money outside your bank account. No-one can freeze cash stuffed in your mattress except you... But if a bank freezes your account its up to them to be kind enough to give your money back, or suing them to get your money back (which will hurt you much more than them). As they did in my case... on to that bit shortly.
Using the account is mediocre. The ATMs have an English option, and are all over the place, so that's nice. But they usually close business hours. Yes you read that right, in Japan, ATMs are closer to a "9 to 5" affair than the usually convenient utility they are in financially modern countries. This might suggest going with Seven Bank (SEVEN BANK English Site | Seven Bank), who are connected to 7-11, but I have no experience with them. I imagine it means you can be sure you've got an ATM available at all times at your-bank fee rates, if that's important to you.
The account has worked fine so far with setting up direct debits, but you just have to factor in that Yucho is considered "special" in Japanese banking. E.g. one credit card application had two separate sections for connecting a Yucho account for direct debiting, a normal section, and a Yucho section. One problem I had with direct debit setup was due to a middle name. Yucho says to input your full legal name, but if you populate your middle name (which it will allow, spaces and all), you'll run into problems with automatic setup of direct debits. E.g. credit card companies seem to declare that the only legitimate form of name is LASTNAME FIRSTNAME, and nothing else, because the rest of the planet doesn't exist (or at least they wish it were so). So if your name is "BOB CHARLIE SMITH", that's what Yucho asks for you to enter, and might (don't know haven't tried it) reject you if you say you are "BOB SMITH" since your residence card will say "SMITH BOB CHARLIE". But credit card applications will only have two fields for name, and tell you to mush your names together (for either retardation or sakoku reasons), so you have to enter "SMITH BOBCHARLIE" as your name. Yes, it looks really ****** stupid when you get your card. When you reach the automatic direct debit part of the credit card application, you'll get rejected and they will have to mail to a paper form to fill out and mail back for that step (more weeks of delay), because "SMITH BOBCHARLIE" doesn't match the "SMITH BOB CHARLIE" on your Yucho account. Assholes. Moving on.
Online banking is quite clumsy. It's usable, and I was able to carry out some bank transfers (furikomi) OK, but compared to more up-to-date or neo-banks it will irritate you. Login into your account involves not merely logging in and then using it, but logging in, then going through 2 or 3 pages of nonsense notices (actually pointless nonsense, like optional things you might try or notifications of upcoming 5 minute downtimes or other trivial stuff you really don't need to know). Using Google Chrome - Google Translate, it was thereafter usable. However it times out very quickly, needing a new logon, and you can't save your login details because it splits it over two screens and splits the account number into three fields for some comical "we discovered the internet yesterday and don't really know how to do it" spastic reason.
Note: using their online banking to do a bank transfer is far superior to doing it with one of their ATMs. I did it with an ATM once and it took about 20 minutes and roughly 100 screen presses to complete. Horrible experience.
It also goes without saying: never use Yucho, or attempt to use it, or any other Japanese bank, for international transfers. Just sign up for a separate modern service designed for this, like wise.com. Note that even wise.com, despite being absolutely seamless with most big-economy currencies and super easy to use, is hard to use with JPY specifically, but still just about usable (barely). Again, country-specific paranoid fossils are to blame, not wise.com. This wasn't the only place I ran into problems around international transfers and Japanese banks -- trying to get cash into my international brokerage account in the form of JPY was like trying to calculate a moon landing trajectory with pen and paper, so I just used a foreign bank account.
Now, all that was livable with, mediocre as it was. Until recently.
As most foreigners are aware, residence durations can be limited, as indicated on your residence card. Previously with small local banks, they never requested me to submit my new residence card details after the old one had expired, according to their records. I once checked an old account at an ATM several years after I last used it, long after my original residence card had expired, and it still let me access it. Yucho isn't like that. They will demand you submit new details.
Fine. I don't see myself why that matters, and that's never happened anywhere else. But I'm not a paranoid bank managed by weird fossil people who are looking forward to sucking the blood of the young *ahem* I mean enjoying their nice pensions that the young-and-few will be paying for out of their subsistence wages. Therefore, I'm unqualified to comment on this.
So Yucho sent me a notice that I needed to supply my new residence card details. OK fine. That notice stated the URL to go to to submit the details. That I went to, populated all details, and submitted. "Thanks for submitting" etc. All was fine, I figured.
Then I started getting notices when using the ATM, on my ATM slips, to update my residence card details via the website. That was odd... I'd already done that. They did say there was a lag though, so I waited. But I kept getting the notice weeks later, and then saw it on my online banking login screen too (one of those two or three user-irritating screens), so I figured there was a problem and I should try again. So I entered everything again, which was not a short process, rehashing about 70% of the details supplied in the (lengthy) original account opening process, via a different link and form process, supplied directly by my online account after logging in. Again "Thanks for submitting".
Fast forward a few weeks later, I go to an ATM to withdraw some money, and it ejects my card and prints out an ATM slip stating (verbatim): "UNABLE TO PROCESS. PLEASE UPDATE THE INFO OF YOUR RESIDENCE CARD THRU OFFICES OR WEBSITE." plus the Japanese translation. Which I already did, to the letter, twice. Now, there isn't a small amount of money in that account. If it weren't for my foreign accounts, and for the fact I'd withdrawn plenty of cash for my mattress (correctly presuming their weird hikikomori fossil nature and being wary of them in advance) I'd be very worried. I pay my rent and pay all my living expenses out of that account.
For that reason, these people are too risky to bank with as a foreigner, and definitely too risky to rely on. In general I'd suggest never relying on a Japanese bank as a foreigner, keeping your foreign bank accounts and credit cards alive while in Japan, treating a Japanese account as a risky asset and diversifying, and withdrawing and keeping most or a significant amount of your JPY savings in cash (in your mattress or a safe or wherever -- probably not even a bank safe deposit box would be safe), as you never know when these crooks will just refuse to give you back your money. If they don't what are you going to do? Sue it out of them? That'll hurt you much more than them. Never assume a Japanese bank is a safe and trustworthy place to keep your money as a foreigner, and always maintain and apply fallbacks in case they arbitrarily and capriciously decide to victimize you.
Now I'll be looking for new bank accounts as I go through the process of getting my money back from and extricating myself from dealings with Yucho.
To be clear: because many people like to black-and-white pick a side on things, because this is the internet and the internet is to suspension of intelligence what roads are to rage: I am not saying all Japanese people operate banks and are stupid hikikomori weird paranoid fossils that parasitize the young; but only a very small, select, overly powerful few of them.
So that's my screed/report over. Questions for anyone in the know: what's the current best bank for foreigners in Japan in 2022? Citibank is sadly gone, but I'm thinking either go with what's left of them (Prestia), or try a bank that's never been recommended for foreigners (like MUFG). I might consider another local bank, but often they don't have very good internet banking, and that comes in handy. Whenever I have to route through foreign banks the fees stack up, and they don't work for all situations in Japan.
I previously delved into this area regarding that bank claimed to be foreigner friendly but is actually hostile to foreigners, and so want to share my other experiences around banks, to try and help other foreigners avoid a bit of covert-sakoku pain.
Japan Post Bank, a.k.a "Yucho" (the name I'll use for the rest of this report), is one of the often recommended banks for foreigners (the other one is the bank whose name starts with "shin" -- and which you should strongly avoid). I've been using Yucho for a couple of years, and they've got some pros and a lot of cons, so thought I'd lay it all out here.
Firstly, signing up is so-so. I've previously signed up for a bank account at a local small bank before, which involved a short form and a helpful staff member, taking less than an hour and leaving with an account ready to use. I still think that's the best way to go. Find a small local bank which someone you know banks with, especially an older reputable Japanese person (could be your landlord), and go with them. But at least with Yucho they have a moderately-functional online system with some English assistance that kind of works. It was less painful than I expected for Japan (still fairly painful, in contrast to all other non English speaking countries I've previously created bank accounts in).
They provide you with an online application process with some English help (and an online process is itself a help since you can use automatic Google Chrome - Google Translate to help you), that ultimately outputs its results as a big PDF that you print out and mail to them (don't laugh -- this is relatively high tech for the banking/finance/accounting sector in Japan, who only as of this year lets you store your receipts digitally rather than either storing them as paper for 7 years or going through some bullshit bureaucratic process to get approved to e-store... seriously what? I bet some of these pricks only recently stopped using gas lanterns). Roughly a month after I mailed that form, I got back second stage paperwork. After completing that and mailing it, I got a cash card. Note: not a bank card in the modern 21st century sense, just a "cash card" that only works with ATMs but cannot be used for purchases or anything else -- for that you'd have to go through another process, and its better just to get a credit card from another company (separate thread incoming).
They advertise that you don't need to use a seal (hanko) to create an account, but to be clear, absolutely you should supply your hanko impression when you create an account. Otherwise if you try to set up a direct debit system e.g. for tax, those systems always use a hanko, so you'll have to visit Yucho in person to register your stamp if you fail to do this during account creation. Don't use a hand signature even though they say you can; use a seal (hanko).
Yucho asks you a billion questions to get an account. In the paperwork process I had to answer questions as inane as how many staff the company that I work for has, and what their total capital was (how the hell would I know? I don't own the damn thing). You'll also have to answer a dozen inane questions about how you'll use the account and what for, including your transaction profiles (how often and how much). It's very irritating. And proudly, comically, drooling-at-the-mouth stupid -- they really think that crap is going to stop crooks using their bank? My favourite was the bit where they ask about 10 different questions about if you're a gangster, or a terrorist, or a gangster terrorist (yes, a "gangster terrorist", what? what even is that?), etc. Like that's going to help anything. Committing to full-retard status I guess. Moving on.
You will also run into a problem, albeit a rare one, if you're employed by a foreign company, when it comes to your company's address. The only address you can really put in that case, if they don't have a local office, is your home address, since you can't enter a foreign address. For some questions you might find you have no idea how to answer. For example (I don't remember if this was for this bank or just another application I did), asking for the type of the company you work for -- but the list of options may be very old and not list new forms of companies that now exist like a goudou-kaisha. In these cases I just answered closest I could, and they never called me up about it or checked or anything.
All in all, the obstructionism I felt last time I signed up at a small local bank was much much smaller. I'd say as a basic rule: (a) don't sign up for any bank ever recommended online for foreigners, and (b) try local small banks first. Beyond that, make sure you keep all your foreign bank accounts and credit cards active for whenever you might need to use them, since banking technology and paranoia levels are far better outside of Japan, by a factor of about 3. I wouldn't recommend you sign up for any Japanese "neo" bank, e.g. Sony, on the sole basis that you've got no in-person recourse if they treat you badly and freeze your account merely on the basis of you being a foreigner, which can happen any time. I'd also consider keeping a significant amount of your money outside your bank account. No-one can freeze cash stuffed in your mattress except you... But if a bank freezes your account its up to them to be kind enough to give your money back, or suing them to get your money back (which will hurt you much more than them). As they did in my case... on to that bit shortly.
Using the account is mediocre. The ATMs have an English option, and are all over the place, so that's nice. But they usually close business hours. Yes you read that right, in Japan, ATMs are closer to a "9 to 5" affair than the usually convenient utility they are in financially modern countries. This might suggest going with Seven Bank (SEVEN BANK English Site | Seven Bank), who are connected to 7-11, but I have no experience with them. I imagine it means you can be sure you've got an ATM available at all times at your-bank fee rates, if that's important to you.
The account has worked fine so far with setting up direct debits, but you just have to factor in that Yucho is considered "special" in Japanese banking. E.g. one credit card application had two separate sections for connecting a Yucho account for direct debiting, a normal section, and a Yucho section. One problem I had with direct debit setup was due to a middle name. Yucho says to input your full legal name, but if you populate your middle name (which it will allow, spaces and all), you'll run into problems with automatic setup of direct debits. E.g. credit card companies seem to declare that the only legitimate form of name is LASTNAME FIRSTNAME, and nothing else, because the rest of the planet doesn't exist (or at least they wish it were so). So if your name is "BOB CHARLIE SMITH", that's what Yucho asks for you to enter, and might (don't know haven't tried it) reject you if you say you are "BOB SMITH" since your residence card will say "SMITH BOB CHARLIE". But credit card applications will only have two fields for name, and tell you to mush your names together (for either retardation or sakoku reasons), so you have to enter "SMITH BOBCHARLIE" as your name. Yes, it looks really ****** stupid when you get your card. When you reach the automatic direct debit part of the credit card application, you'll get rejected and they will have to mail to a paper form to fill out and mail back for that step (more weeks of delay), because "SMITH BOBCHARLIE" doesn't match the "SMITH BOB CHARLIE" on your Yucho account. Assholes. Moving on.
Online banking is quite clumsy. It's usable, and I was able to carry out some bank transfers (furikomi) OK, but compared to more up-to-date or neo-banks it will irritate you. Login into your account involves not merely logging in and then using it, but logging in, then going through 2 or 3 pages of nonsense notices (actually pointless nonsense, like optional things you might try or notifications of upcoming 5 minute downtimes or other trivial stuff you really don't need to know). Using Google Chrome - Google Translate, it was thereafter usable. However it times out very quickly, needing a new logon, and you can't save your login details because it splits it over two screens and splits the account number into three fields for some comical "we discovered the internet yesterday and don't really know how to do it" spastic reason.
Note: using their online banking to do a bank transfer is far superior to doing it with one of their ATMs. I did it with an ATM once and it took about 20 minutes and roughly 100 screen presses to complete. Horrible experience.
It also goes without saying: never use Yucho, or attempt to use it, or any other Japanese bank, for international transfers. Just sign up for a separate modern service designed for this, like wise.com. Note that even wise.com, despite being absolutely seamless with most big-economy currencies and super easy to use, is hard to use with JPY specifically, but still just about usable (barely). Again, country-specific paranoid fossils are to blame, not wise.com. This wasn't the only place I ran into problems around international transfers and Japanese banks -- trying to get cash into my international brokerage account in the form of JPY was like trying to calculate a moon landing trajectory with pen and paper, so I just used a foreign bank account.
Now, all that was livable with, mediocre as it was. Until recently.
As most foreigners are aware, residence durations can be limited, as indicated on your residence card. Previously with small local banks, they never requested me to submit my new residence card details after the old one had expired, according to their records. I once checked an old account at an ATM several years after I last used it, long after my original residence card had expired, and it still let me access it. Yucho isn't like that. They will demand you submit new details.
Fine. I don't see myself why that matters, and that's never happened anywhere else. But I'm not a paranoid bank managed by weird fossil people who are looking forward to sucking the blood of the young *ahem* I mean enjoying their nice pensions that the young-and-few will be paying for out of their subsistence wages. Therefore, I'm unqualified to comment on this.
So Yucho sent me a notice that I needed to supply my new residence card details. OK fine. That notice stated the URL to go to to submit the details. That I went to, populated all details, and submitted. "Thanks for submitting" etc. All was fine, I figured.
Then I started getting notices when using the ATM, on my ATM slips, to update my residence card details via the website. That was odd... I'd already done that. They did say there was a lag though, so I waited. But I kept getting the notice weeks later, and then saw it on my online banking login screen too (one of those two or three user-irritating screens), so I figured there was a problem and I should try again. So I entered everything again, which was not a short process, rehashing about 70% of the details supplied in the (lengthy) original account opening process, via a different link and form process, supplied directly by my online account after logging in. Again "Thanks for submitting".
Fast forward a few weeks later, I go to an ATM to withdraw some money, and it ejects my card and prints out an ATM slip stating (verbatim): "UNABLE TO PROCESS. PLEASE UPDATE THE INFO OF YOUR RESIDENCE CARD THRU OFFICES OR WEBSITE." plus the Japanese translation. Which I already did, to the letter, twice. Now, there isn't a small amount of money in that account. If it weren't for my foreign accounts, and for the fact I'd withdrawn plenty of cash for my mattress (correctly presuming their weird hikikomori fossil nature and being wary of them in advance) I'd be very worried. I pay my rent and pay all my living expenses out of that account.
For that reason, these people are too risky to bank with as a foreigner, and definitely too risky to rely on. In general I'd suggest never relying on a Japanese bank as a foreigner, keeping your foreign bank accounts and credit cards alive while in Japan, treating a Japanese account as a risky asset and diversifying, and withdrawing and keeping most or a significant amount of your JPY savings in cash (in your mattress or a safe or wherever -- probably not even a bank safe deposit box would be safe), as you never know when these crooks will just refuse to give you back your money. If they don't what are you going to do? Sue it out of them? That'll hurt you much more than them. Never assume a Japanese bank is a safe and trustworthy place to keep your money as a foreigner, and always maintain and apply fallbacks in case they arbitrarily and capriciously decide to victimize you.
Now I'll be looking for new bank accounts as I go through the process of getting my money back from and extricating myself from dealings with Yucho.
To be clear: because many people like to black-and-white pick a side on things, because this is the internet and the internet is to suspension of intelligence what roads are to rage: I am not saying all Japanese people operate banks and are stupid hikikomori weird paranoid fossils that parasitize the young; but only a very small, select, overly powerful few of them.
So that's my screed/report over. Questions for anyone in the know: what's the current best bank for foreigners in Japan in 2022? Citibank is sadly gone, but I'm thinking either go with what's left of them (Prestia), or try a bank that's never been recommended for foreigners (like MUFG). I might consider another local bank, but often they don't have very good internet banking, and that comes in handy. Whenever I have to route through foreign banks the fees stack up, and they don't work for all situations in Japan.
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) Nice smartphone app that informs you a few days in advance when money is about to leave your account. Got a free sponge in the shape of the Risona/Resona cat.
