Ex-pat living in the Tokyo area for about a year now. Given the Japanese's love of point cards and loyalty programs at everything from noodle shacks to furniture stores, I know there has to be strategies to earn miles and points just as in the US. The biggest hurdle of course is the language barrier. My opportunity cost of losing out on MS in the states at 20k-30k Chase points per month, which is killing me. Anyone have strategies to earn points or miles over here?

What about a miles-earning credit card that you use for everyday spending? There's a Japanese version of several US airlines that are yen-denominated and designed for residents of Japan that will earn miles into your existing FF account with that airline. Or, you could get a US-based card that has no foreign spend surcharge and do the same thing, assuming you have USD income or funds to pay it off each month.

I always wondered this, too. If I ever have to relocate to Jpn, I'll lose MS opportunities as well. All I can think of is the airline credit card with no foreign transaction fee at the moment. I don't think Jpn is all that much into Gift card like US since CASH is preferred especially in a denomination of $300 or more (i.e. in a gift-giving situation that is). And even if you can buy a gift card, I don't know how to liquidate without a huge margin loss (there is always a pawn shop or Kinken shop). GOOD LUCK.

Maybe you all need to start thinking that the US is the exception.... In no other country that I know you can get those "ridiculous" sign up bonusses for credit cards or the oportunities for MS.

Earning points for credit card spend, and sometimes some points for FFP offers like newspaper or telecomm subscriptions are the best that's available. Maybe some minor tricks to buy/earn points in hotel programs and then do a transfer. But that's about it. Not even the good transfer ratios that Amex US has, or the variety in participating programs.

So count yourselfs lucky.... But maybe also wonder why it is so :-).

Interest rates are much lower here than in the US, and airlines haven't really caught on to the idea of flogging points to banks for cash. As a result, credit cards tend to have very low signup bonuses and high annual fees (that are rarely waived). Category bonuses for spending tend to be poor as well. The best I've seen is Amex's Sky Traveler Premium Card that gives 5x points for airline tickets. However, the annual fee is about 30,000 JPY and you can only generate a maximum of 80,000 points with the bonus, which kills it for me.

Manufactured spend is also nearly non-existent. I've seen Vanilla cards in convenience stores but there's no way to easily liquidate them back to cash like in the US. I've heard one way of doing MS is to buy Amazon gift cards, then sell them online at a gift card marketplace, but the overhead doesn't make it worthwhile.

Remember, this is the country where mileage runners think 7-8 yen per mile on NH or JL in Y is a good deal! The economics of CC spend and mileage accrual are simply different than the US.

God bless the USA
Citibank (Hilton Honors) has paid for a boatload of nights via points earned thanks to their willingness to allow churns. ^

I think I would suffer some sort of withdrawals if I suddenly had to relocate to another country.

I think that if you had a credit history you would still be able to churn, you might only miss out on some MS :-).

I put all my daily spend on the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but am forced to use way more cash than I would ever like. I have figured out, with the help of my mom, how to still pay my considerable $2100 rent with a credit card here for $12 in fees. I stocked up on churns for my wife and I before we moved out here which is lasting us for now.

Interestingly during this rainy season I have 3 times bought baseball tickets for the workplace at 7/11 using the ole sapphire, only to have the games rained out. I went back to the 7/11 and was given a full CASH refund.... food for thought.

Favorite thing about Japan so far is 9,000 Avios r/t flights on JAL We've been everywhere in a year.

I'm a US citizen, and still have an address in the US, so I do engage in some churning, but it is indeed a hassle unless you either: a) use a forwarding service to deliver your credit card to you, or b) ask a friend or family member to send you the card or number. Then there's the issue of meeting minimum spend requirements by sending yen back to the US, incurring more fees.

Richklhs, are you putting all of your yen-denominated spending on the Chase card? If your income is being wired to the US in USD I suppose that makes sense, but otherwise it seems like you're losing out due to wire transfer and forex fees.

Oh, and I think we'd all be interested to know how you're paying for your rent with a CC

I do get paid in USD via direct deposit in a US Bank account. Paying rent is basically having my family as an authorized user and buying paypal reload cards for me. Direct deposit paypal account to checking and pay rent with cash.