Rich in Japan

Best Banks For High Income Foreigners in Japan

tldr : SMBC Prestia, Sony Bank, Mitsui Sumitomo (or Mitsubishi UFJ). I have never tried SBI Shinsei so no idea on good they are.

So in my experience you need 3 bank accounts in Japan. 1 for storing money & wealth accumulation (SMBC Prestia), 1 for general spending (Sony), and 1 for Direct-Debiting (Mitsui Sumitomo). These 3 combination work incredibly well for 99.9% of the population and any wealth level (I've personally managing several millions of dollars worth of money). Furthermore, Prestia and Sony Bank gives you more and more perks as you store more money with them. You could replace Mitsui Sumitomo with Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho, or Resona if you'd like, but I'd stick with Mitsui Sumitomo atm because it's the biggest one in Japan and almost all Direct-Debit services can work with Mitsui Sumitomo. Note that SMBC Prestia and Mitsui Sumitomo (SMBC) are 2 different banks - but have some relationship with each other. It's kind of under the same umbrella but not the same ownership.
* One might say - isn't 3 banks too much? Well, most people have at least 2 or 3 in their own country so this is quite normal.

SMBC Prestia - Great for High Income Foreigners

SMBC Prestia is especially recommended for high-income foreigners because of their Gold Premium status where you get a a few perks like a dedicated consultant (basically a semi-private banker). The thing is - as a wealthy person, I always wanted to have a face-to-face relationship with 1 bank that really understood my situation. For Japan, Prestia is that one bank that lets you do this easily - espeially for a non-Japanese. Their consultants also don't change unless they get transferred or quits the bank - so you typically speak to the same person each time. Essentially, a smart person becomes your customer support window. For this reason, I put about 90% of my cash in Japan in Prestia.

You need to put in 50M yen in your account (10M has to be in foreign currency) to get the status - which is not super unattainable. Prestia was also formally a foreign bank (Citibank), and many of their reps can speak English. Their wealth consultants are very good on average, and have experience working with richer individuals so they know how to take care of you.

There are other features that make wealth management & growth easier at Prestia, and I use them because :

  • There's actually a branch that you can go to. Very reassuring if you're making large transactions.
  • Buying Term Deposits (or Certificate of Deposit in the US) is easy from the App for any amount.
  • There's a "Monthly Smile" option with Term Deposits where Prestia gives you the interest payments monthly, instead all at once at the end. I use this.
  • You can deposit foreign cheques. (The only bank in Japan that can do this, with some limitations)
  • They don't get weird about foreign transactions or foreigners in general.
  • You can take out loans against your Term Deposits. Big plus!
  • You get excellent interest rates on housing loans if you have the Gold Premium status. As of writing, Sony Bank offers 0.547%, whereas Prestia offers 0.39%.
  • Branches are usually empty and wait times are short. Cozy and well-furnished.

Disadvantages of Prestia include :

  • Many Direct-Debiting services don't support Prestia (Biggest pain point)
  • Some remittance apps like Remitly doesn't support sending to Prestia (But Wise, XE, and Western Union does support it)
  • OTP for logging into the App can only be done through a dedicated physical OTP device. No SMS or Authenticator OTP! Kind of annoying.
  • Remittance receiving window is like 9AM - 4PM on Weekdays. So if someone sends you money, you have to wait until the bank opens to receive it. A lot of banks like Mitsui Sumitomo or Mitsubishi UFJ can receive money nearly 24/7
  • Online payments via Debit Card all show up as "Online Shopping" on the statement, so you have no idea what it is (Bad!)

Direct-Debiting (口座振替) being not supported by most places is probably the biggest pain for me with Prestia. For example, most rent-collection companies won't direct-debit from Prestia. Same with credit card companies - many can't do 口座振替 with Prestia, but will support Sony Bank or Mitsui Sumitomo. Gyms like Central Sports (everywhere in Japan) also won't accept Prestia for Direct-Debit. It's really just annoying and the only reason one doesn't bank entirely with Prestia. Plus just the fact that bank statements don't have spending details (like merchant name), makes Prestia unsuitable for daily spending. But it is great for wealth management.

Sony Bank - 2% Cashback, Great App, & OK Direct-Debiting

Sony Bank is probably my first recommended sign-up upon arriving in Japan. The App is just ridiculously easy to use and feels English-native. Sign up itself takes about 30 minutes on their website, and then you have to mail them your 住民票 and Residence Card copy and wait about a week. I had some issues with name matching between some of my documents and the customer support resolved it quickly. What impressed me was the fact that Customer Support was clearly knowledgeable about foreigner middle-names, 通称, and all complexity. And the agent was clearly a smart person - not some robotic offshore person (or maybe they were offshored, but still, their English + Banking knowledge was stellar for a standard CS agent). Usually that doesn't happen at Mitsui Sumitomo or similar big-banks where 99% of their customers are Japanese.

I would say that Sony Bank's main advantage is just how streamlined everything is. The UX is top notch :

  • App's interface is really easy to understand.
  • The app has no clutter - ie no Ads (Mitsui Sumitomo, I'm looking at you)
  • No fancy points that you accumulate (everything is direct cashback into your account, up to 2%!)
  • 振込 to other accounts is really easy in the app.
  • Buying Term deposits in the app is super easy.
  • I haven't tried Foreign SWIFT transfers but I presume that's not too difficult either.
  • They give you tiers called Club S based on how much foreign currency you deposit with them. You have to deposit 10M yen worth of foreign currency to get the highest tier (2% cashback).
  • Their Email notification system is really fast. If someone (or you) remit money to yourself, you get an email as soon as it's deposited. Prestia generally doesn't email, and Mitsui Sumitomo emails are usually delayed.

I don't actually have a lot of complaints about Sony. It's genuinely the best starter bank account for foreigners. And unlike Prestia, their app shows the Merchant name based on your transactions. Domestic transactions are easy, and about 70% to 80% of Direct-Debiting services work with Sony Bank. If you can store 10M yen worth of foreign currency in their account, you can get 2% cashback and that's great. No need to think about complex point management.

However, I should talk about some disadvantages of Sony Bank, for example :

  • No physical branches. No advisors.
  • Won't accept cheques.
  • You have to manually "accept" every foreign remittances you get and it's delayed by 1-2 business days. Annoying if you're doing frequent remittances to Sony Bank from your home country bank.