Every transaction, fees apply: Bank charges in Japan

photo by droit

Opening a bank account is one of the things on your must-do list to live in Japan. Your life become a lot easier if you have one when you pay rent and utilities, or pay for items you purchased. But as you may have already noticed by now, it costs a lot to use Japanese bank account. Fees for money transfer, among other things, are very complicated as different fee is charged for every fund transfer depending on the amount, payee’s bank account or the terminal that you send money from (e.g. ATM or internet banking). It is quite common that you end up paying different amount of fees when you send similar amount of money to different payees. This column will summarize bank fees for money transfers and ATM usage fees that are most common transactions.

Money transfer fee: bank branch office

Firstly, money transfer fees are decided according to the amount, bank and branch of payee’s account, ATM or branch office, paying by cash or not. The following tables show fees for money transfer from branch office of the three major Japanese banks: Sumitomo Mitsui, Mizuho and MUFG.

Same bank transfers

Interbank transfer

Money transfer fee: Internet banking

Today, most major city banks and local banks provide internet banking service for their customers. The largest advantage of online banking is lower transaction fees and flexible operating hours. The following tables show fees for money transfer by ATM of the three major Japanese banks: Sumitomo Mitsui, Mizuho and MUFG.

Same bank transfer

Interbank transfer

ATM usage fee

Remember, using ATM is not always free in Japan. If you are using an ATM at your bank, it is free only if it falls in their trading hours otherwise fees apply. Also, ATM fees are charged at higher rate if you use an ATM in other bank or convenience store. The following tables summarize ATM usage fees of the three major Japanese banks: Sumitomo Mitsui, Mizuho and MUFG (when you have an account with them). Note that and additional fee will be charged for money transfer outside free-ATM-fee hours.

Sumitomo Mitsui

※No charge for Deposit and withdrawal from personal account.

Mizuho

MUFG

Using ATM other than your bank’s 

City banks and local banks often have a multi-bank ATM networking agreement with other banks or stores so that their customers can withdraw, deposit or send money from other bank’s outlets. However, such transactions are subject to ATM fee throughout a day: normally, 108yen during bank’s trading hour otherwise 216yen. Check details of ATM fees on your bank’s website as those fees may vary depending on banks.

Happy banking!

You can use ATM for free in many other countries but not in Japan, unfortunately. Each transaction may cost a little, however, it easily drain on your wallet if you make many transactions. Using internet banking and avoiding funds transfer can help to save your money. For example, choose “direct debit” option to pay utilities so that you can save bank fee as a payee generally bear the cost in this way.

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