Help me get my money out of Japanese bank account from Canada

September 26, 2007 6:16 PM

Help me get my money out of a Japanese bank account. I'm in Canada, and have no plans to go to Japan in the near future. Is there a good, cheap way to transfer money to me?

I have an account at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, or whatever it is called now, that doesn't have an overseas bank card on it. Every two months or so, I have need to pull out $1000 or so out of this account to use in Canada. I have had access to another account that does have an overseas bank card, so I've been transferring money from the main account to the other with internet banking and then withdrawing the money here with the overseas card I have. I'm about to lose access to the overseas account, for various reasons, and I'm looking for an alternative way to pull money out of the main account.

I've done some research, and most suggestions are to use xetrade or Western Union, but both of these options seem to require me to be in Japan to make the money available for transfer. I've looked into opening an account online with another Japanese bank, or issuing an overseas card for my main account, but both of these seem to be difficult.

I'm looking into paypal as an option, but there seem to be many people against this.. Is there a good way to do this, or should I resign myself to leaving the money sitting until I return to Japan some day?

posted by mariokrat to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Wire transfer the balance from your bank to a local account.

You'll have to pay a fee and go through paperwork. Your bank this side of the water can help you with this.
posted by iamabot at 8:51 PM on September 26, 2007

Is there someone there that you trust to give access to your account? Can you give them your hanko (if you have one)? Have them withdraw the money and send it to you as a postal money order. Banks in Japan tend to be very casual about this sort of thing (or at least they were when I lived there about a decade ago).
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 9:39 PM on September 26, 2007

Send the money to me, and I promise to send it to you on paypal! :)

What?!
posted by lundman at 10:02 PM on September 26, 2007

Seconding the wire transfer. I've done it across the US.
posted by philomathoholic at 10:27 PM on September 26, 2007

I use UFJ Mitsubishi as my main account here (Japan). I regularly wire money back home to my back account via their phone service. For me, it's easier because I have registered all the bank info at home with UFJ but during the automated part of the call I know there is an option for unregistered overseas wired transfer. However, I'm not sure if this is only accessible to people who are registered for their Internet banking service.
posted by m3thod4 at 1:31 AM on September 27, 2007

seconding what iamabot said. I've been paid by clients in Thailand and Australia this way.

Other ideas - Do you have web access to your account in Japan? If you have a Paypal account, you could try funding the Paypal account from the Japanese account. The Japanese bank might also have a "pay by email" process that would allow you to pay to your Paypal account.
posted by Artful Codger at 11:38 AM on September 27, 2007