How to Send Money Home from Japan: What Most English Teachers Get Wrong

Most foreign English teachers in Japan are sending money home the expensive way — and they don’t know it.

And honestly, why would you? When you first land in Japan, you’re dealing with a new apartment, a new school, a new phone plan, and a language you may not speak. Your employer points you toward Japan Post Bank (ゆうちょ銀行), your salary lands there, the ATM switches to English, and it works. That’s enough. Nobody has the bandwidth to go shopping for a better wire transfer service in week one.

The problem isn’t the ATM. It’s the exchange rate applied when you send money internationally — and that’s where a significant amount of money quietly disappears every month.

The Hidden Cost Nobody Explains at the Counter

When you check the exchange rate on Google — say, 1 USD = 150.00 JPY — you’re seeing what’s called the mid-market rate. That’s the real, neutral rate that currency markets are actually trading at.

Japan Post Bank doesn’t use that rate.

When you send money internationally through ゆうちょ, the bank applies its own internal rate, typically set a few yen worse than the mid-market rate. If the market rate is 1 USD = 150.00 JPY, ゆうちょ might apply 1 USD = 152.00 JPY. That 2-yen gap is the bank’s cut — and it never appears as a line item on your screen. It’s built into the rate itself, invisible until you do the math.

If you only send money once, you might lose the equivalent of a coffee. No big deal. But as an ALT sending ¥50,000 home every month, that 2-yen gap on every dollar converted adds up to a real number by the end of the year — money that went to the bank instead of your home account, with nothing on your receipt to show for it.

Most teachers I know send home what’s left after rent and daily expenses. Some months that’s ¥30,000, some months closer to ¥50,000 — whatever didn’t go toward groceries, izakaya visits, or buying something Japanese to send back to family. It’s the kind of transfer that feels routine until you realize the rate has been quietly working against you the whole time.

Why Most Teachers Stick With ゆうちょ Anyway

I asked one of the teachers I work with why she still uses ゆうちょ for international transfers rather than switching to something else. Her answers were honest and completely understandable:

She doesn’t know much about the alternatives. She’s used to ゆうちょ. And she doesn’t think the fees are that different.

That last point is the key one — because from the surface, they don’t look different. The ATM doesn’t show you a comparison. There’s no moment where the gap becomes obvious. You send ¥50,000 and some amount arrives on the other end, and unless you’re running the numbers against the mid-market rate, you have no way of knowing how much the conversion cost you.

What Wise Actually Does Differently

Wise uses the mid-market rate — the same number you see on Google — with a small, flat fee displayed clearly before you confirm the transfer. No spread built into the exchange rate. What you see is what gets converted.

One teacher I know moved from Canada to Japan and was already planning his next move to the UK. He used Wise throughout. His reasoning was simple: it works the same way regardless of which country he’s in. One account, one app, no new system to set up every time he crosses a border. For people who move internationally with any regularity, that consistency matters as much as the rate itself.

How to Set It Up

Setting up Wise from Japan takes about 20 minutes — but budget a little extra patience for the identity verification step.

1. Create an account at wise.com
2. Verify your identity — this is where most people slow down. Wise requires KYC (Know Your Customer) verification, which means photographing your Residence Card or My Number Card with your smartphone. The app will ask you to shoot the card from a specific angle — sometimes tilted at roughly 45 degrees to reduce glare — and it can take two or three attempts before the system accepts the image. Keep good lighting and a dark background handy. Once it goes through, you won’t have to do it again.
3. Add your ゆうちょ account as the source of funds
4. Enter your home bank account details as the recipient
5. Set up a recurring transfer if you want to automate the process

The first verification can take a day or two. After that, transfers to major currency pairs typically complete within one business day.

Does This Mean Closing Your ゆうちょ Account?

Not at all. ゆうちょ is still the right tool for everything domestic — rent, utilities, daily spending within Japan. The issue is specifically international transfers, where the exchange rate spread makes a real difference compounded over months.

The setup most teachers land on: keep ゆうちょ for Japan, use Wise for anything going overseas. Twenty minutes of setup, and the first transfer makes the comparison obvious on its own.

If you haven’t sorted your ゆうちょ account yet, the guide to opening a bank account in Japan as a foreigner covers the process. And if your phone plan is still temporary, the Japan SIM card guide is worth a read before you commit to a carrier.

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