tycosiao

Hi

I would like to seek help

I will be in Japan on a tourist visa, I will collect cash payment from a customer and will want to transfer the cash to my Japanese supplier.

I do not have a bank account in Japan and highly doubt that I can get a alien registration card as I'm on a tourist visa.

How do I transfer the money within Japan without a Japanese bank account?

Or is it impossible?

Thanks

mrploddy

As long as you have the cash you should in theory be able to walk in to most Japanese banks and ask to send a 振り込み (furikomi) as long as you are carrying hard currency. (If you are sending to a post office bank account better to walk in to a Japanese post office during business hours (郵貯銀行）.

Banks business hours are 9am and to ensure the furikomi is sent that day most banks have a cut off of 3pm.

However be aware you will be charged anywhere between 300 yen and 1000 yen depending on if
a) the suppliers bank account is the same bank
b) the amount.

My best advice would be to find a bank employee and say

銀行に振り込みたいです。すみません日本語が話せないので助けてください。
ginkou ni furikomitai desu. sumimasen nihongo ga hanasenai no de tasukete kudasai.
I want to send a money transfer. I can't speak Japanese so please help me.

And then show them the piece of paper with your suppliers bank account details (and of course the cash) - (written in Japanese)
You will need to send it
- your details
- your suppliers bank account details
- your suppliers address
- your suppliers contact details

-mrploddy

AlwaysAisle

Don’t know exact situation of your business, but yes, as visiting Japan as a tourist likeliness of able to open a bank account in Japan is almost zero.

I guess my question will be why do you see the need to have a bank account Japan? What will likely happen is that money transfer need to take placce as below:

Your Customer’s bank account (don’t know where your customer is located) –> Your bank account in Singapore (Is this where you are home based?) –> Supplier’s bank account in Japan.

By some reasons you want to avoid above situation?

P.S.
mrploddy posted before me. I did not mention what mrploddy described, because that requires OP to handle transaction in cash from the customer to the suppliers. Since this is a business transaction so OP may be talking more than few of ten thousand yen of cash.

I guess Japans is more of cash society compare with the U.S. or Western European countries and banks branch offices in Japan likely do handle more cash transactions…

mrploddy

Carrying around lots of cash is quite commonplace in Japan.

I have been known to handle / carry $3000 cash on overnight trips...not the most pleasant of experiences as very self aware being from the UK but in Japan people don't think its strange.

If the OP does'nt want to handle the cash any reputable Japanese business should be more than adequately setup to send a furikomi if the OP supplies the suppliers bank account details.

-mrploddy

O Sora

OP,

Take your ID with you.
---- For transfer of 100,000 yen or up, this is mandatory.
Preferably go to the same bank as the one the remitee has the account with.
---- This can save some fee, which is 300 yen or so on average.

tycosiao

Thanks

Exactly what I needed.

It will be kinda stupid if I bring the cash back to Singapore, change them back to SGD, then buy JPY and TT it over.

Guess I will head to this branch to do the furikomi.

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.
Asakusabashi Branch

Thanks for all your help!

^^

invisible

Why can't your customer send money directly to your supplier? They both are locals and can arranger whole details among themselves...

Taiwaned

Perhaps OP doesn't want supplier to have direct contact with client.

jib71

invisible appears to assume that the OP is adding no value in the ecosystem.
(That's one **** of an assumption IMHO)

tycosiao

Thank you for the help, especially mrploddy

Showed the bank staff your post and they assisted me in transferring the funds.

My supplier has also verified that they have received it on the same day.

As to the question as to why I don't want my customer to pay my supplier is that

if I allow that to happen, I will be eating grass everyday.

Nonetheless, the supplier and client in this particular instance handle different products.

Thank you very much!