Who is writing this
I'm Jin. I'm a Japanese national who moved to the United States for work and spent four years there as the plant manager of a US factory — a plant that was losing money when I arrived and profitable when I left. I am not a tax advisor, not a financial planner, and not an immigration lawyer.
Why this site exists
Almost every money guide is written for people who stay in one country. Mine broke the moment I crossed a border. My US brokerage account had rules about my address. My logins depended on a US phone number I was about to lose. Japanese mutual funds turned out to be radioactive for anyone the IRS considers a US person. None of this was written down anywhere in one place, so I worked it out — and wrote down what I found, including the parts I got wrong.
What you can trust here, and what you can't
- First-hand where I say so. When I have personally done a thing — opened the account, made the call, paid the fee — I say so and give the real numbers.
- Sourced where I haven't. Rules I have not personally tested are linked to the primary source: the IRS, FinCEN, the Japanese National Tax Agency, the Japan Pension Service. If a point is genuinely unsettled among practitioners, I say that rather than pick a side and sound confident.
- Not advice. Your situation has facts mine doesn't. Visa status, citizenship, state of last residence, marital status and timing all change the answer. For anything that matters, use a cross-border professional.
How the site makes money
Some articles link to services I use or would use, and I may earn a commission if you sign up through them — at no extra cost to you. That is disclosed at the top of every article where it applies. I do not write articles because a company pays; the topics come from problems I actually hit or that readers ask about. If a service is the wrong choice for a situation, I say so even where I have a link. There is more detail on the disclaimer page.
Where else to find me
I post on X, and I write a longer-form Japanese version of this site at jinexpat.com. Corrections are genuinely welcome — if something here is wrong or has gone out of date, tell me and I will fix it and note the change.