Banking in Japan, Part 2

In which I set up my Japanese bank account to send money.

My second week in Japan, I started intensive language lessons.  Unfortunately the language school does not accept credit cards as payments — only cash or bank transfer, with the latter preferred (this is normal in Japan).  Assuming I will soon get paid and have money in my account, I resolve to pay by bank transfer.  In order to do this, I must register the recipient’s bank account information with my bank.  It’s the 21st century, so I figure I can do this on the internet, right?  Wrong.

Steps to register a domestic bank transfer recipient

  1. Print out form from bank website
  2. Fill out form
  3. Take form in person to local bank branch
  4. Get asked to re-sign your name because the final “d” looks different
  5. Wait 15 minutes while the teller (presumably) enters the information on a computer
  6. Get informed that your recipient will appear online to receive transfers within 2-3 business days.  Because it takes time for the information to… uh… yeah I have no idea.  Reasons.

Unfortunately, pay day comes and goes and I don’t get paid, because paychecks are monthly, not biweekly here, and I arrived after the “cut off date” for getting paid in February.  Which means I need to transfer money from my American bank account to my Japanese bank account in order to pay for my classes.  More on that later, though…

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