Vivinavi : Hawaii : (United States) Hawaii

• tax man
• 2022/08/01 (Mon) 21:16
• Report

＞ ① It is not illegal to keep an account opened while living in Japan even after moving abroad.

Illegal is when the bank's account opening is regulated by Japanese law, but
in the case of a private bank, the bank is not allowed to open an account for a non-Japanese resident
under the contract with the customer, not under the national regulation, and furthermore
If the customer moves abroad , the bank will close the account.

＞ ② If you leave your account for 5 years, it will be frozen. ？

Some people cannot maintain their accounts. That is, there are people who have left 100 yen or so in their accounts and returned to their home country
, or if in Japan, moved to another prefecture, or even died, and their
10 yen or 100 yen accounts cannot be maintained forever, so they cannot use their accounts for a certain period
of time and not use them. If the account is not used for a certain period of time, the bank's rule is to close the account by contract. It is not a law.

Therefore, basically the following can be said.

1 ） Japanese or foreigners who have not registered their residence in Japan cannot open an account, and
if you had an account when you lived in Japan, you must close it
when you submit your notification of moving out.

2 ） Some people say that they need to file FBARs and other returns in the U.S., but basically
their purpose is
the following.

https://smartandresponsible.com/blog/fbar/
Purpose of FBAR
The purpose of FBAR is to find unjustified tax evasion by hiding assets, money laundering, and ultimately creating funds for terrorist acts. Enforcement of FBAR applications is left to the IRS and may be confused with
a tax return, which is also enforced by the IRS.

Finally, please understand that even if you maintained the account you had when you were in Japan, if you merely
maintained the account and did not intend to evade taxes in violation of the so-called FBAR rules, you are not
subject to punishment from the US IRS. Please understand that you are not subject to punishment from the IRS in the US.

But again, since you are violating the bank's rules, you cannot complain even if your account is
forcibly closed. It is not a violation of the law, but it is a
violation of your contract with the bank, an institution.

• tax man
• 2022/08/01 (Mon) 22:56
• Report

To elaborate,
the bank feels that there is no problem
to maintain the account even if the person who opened it goes abroad. （ We feel that there is no need to force them to close their accounts
. In other words, from the bank's point of view, there will be fewer customers. ）

The problem is that for Japanese who have moved abroad, we need to avoid "company reporting obligations" to, for example, the U.S. government
which would increase unnecessary
work, which would be a negative.

Therefore, the rule is, "You are required to close the account."
and thus, for example, you do not have to fulfill your reporting obligations to the IRS
in the U.S.

Therefore, we will set a rule to close the account
so that you do not have to fulfill the reporting obligation to the US, and
on the other hand, we will not take any action
with respect to your keeping the account. On the other hand, they do not take any action to maintain the customer's account, which is a double structure,
of honesty and pretense.

I have personally maintained a Japanese account for decades and have never had any problems
but my parents' address is my account address.

Of course, the bank knows that I live in the U.S.
I have told them many times that my father has a business account with the bank and his son lives in the U.S.
I have been told that my son lives in the U.S.

But I do nothing.
We are working with real and built-up intentions.

• Bank.
• mail
• 2022/08/01 (Mon) 23:33
• Report

tax man
I see. It's good to hear from someone who knows more ！
Thank you.

• rakuten
• 2022/08/02 (Tue) 00:24
• Report

I have lived in Hawaii for a long time, but my Japanese bank account is not closed.

In my case, my Japanese credit card is also automatically debited since I use it when I return to Japan.

I make deposits and withdrawals several times a year and my balance is less than 1 million from my tax accountant.

I have been told to keep it that way.

When I return to Japan, I go to the bank counter to prove that I am still alive😅.

• Bank.
• mail
• 2022/08/02 (Tue) 01:34
• Report

rakuten-san
I see you also have a Japanese credit card ！ The balance of less than 1 million yen is also new information ！ It is inconvenient to have no money in Japan even if you live abroad.
Thanks for the information.
I once had a bank account with a small balance frozen after only 2 years of neglect, and I don't want the remaining bank account to be frozen.