Using paypal in Japan?
 

I moved to Japan in January 2011, and lived in California prior to that. I was working a little, as a J-E translator but since I moved I have no way to recieve payment anymore. I cancelled my Chase bank account back in the U.S. and I have a MUFG/UFJ account now, but apparently they don't support paypal (and they told me I couldn't use it).
Is there a bank in Japan that supports paypal? Are there other alternatives I could use, if there aren't any that do? Because I haven't been paid fully by my commissioners yet, and I'd like to keep translating. I've tried International Money Orders (or summat) via the post office, but not every country supports it, and the fee is a bit much.

I think you are unable to recieve any payments via PayPal from private person's account. Only commapnies can pay you via PayPal. I am not sure about any alternatives, but I'd love to hear about some, too.

Is that a Paypal Japan thing? Not quite familiar with Paypal's system.

こんなの日本語で検索すればすぐわかるでしょ。

yeaaaah. no.
I wanted to know if it would work internationally.
And I did google it, I don't know if I just didn't put the right words in but I don't get the answers I want.

I was referring to international payments.

Ah. >.< Bummer. Will search for alternatives, then.

I have never tried with UFJ, but I have gotten payments from PayPal with no difficulty at a smaller local bank (大垣共立)...
However, they weren't commercial payments. They were gifts from family and friends abroad for my son on birthdays and the like. I never experienced any problems, but they did ask in detail what the money was for. I don't know if it would have been a problem had it been a commercial payment, or if it was just policy to ask.

Can't they just write you a cheque and you deposit it as foreign currency?

As I explained, payments from a legal entity (hence commercial) are allowed, so if he is a certified translator and hasd a registered business, and pays taxes, it can be received, however, payments from a private person from abroad to a private person in JApan are not executable anymore. This was changed in 2010, I beleive. I understand you can still send money from Japan to another private person outside Japan, though.

this was a couple of years ago. I did some paid blogging before and they pay using paypal and I was able to transfer my money to my MUFG account( the only bank account I had that time ) and it was OK.

it has been 4 years, and I have not used my paypal lately so I am not sure if there were any changes.

oh, OK, so it was 2007 not 2010. well, no matter, we can't use it anyway...

hmm I remembered receiving a paypal newsletter about this last year, i guess it changed..

That is strange as the last time I received money was in June.
I did have to notify the bank ahead of time and fill out a form for receiving it, though.

Had no idea that it was supposed to be impossible. I guess I will have to look for other routes and notify people...

You can use Shinsei Bank, they have an English site (if that helps), and linking to Paypal is easy. You will need to link your Paypal account to a credit card if you want to withdraw more than a certain amount each month. I'm not sure what the cap is, but it used to be $500 per month.

Keep in mind that though it is easy to accept Paypal payments and have them transferred to Japan, you will not be able to use Paypal to make payments from your bank account like you can in America. Also, though it is easy to transfer money into Japan, transferring it out is another matter. You may not send money out of Japan as a "gift" or allowance, it can only be transferred for legitimate goods and services.

Wait, that's...contradictory to Ryuu's statement

it is possible i've got it the other way round, but i will have to look it up.
anyways, it matters what address you put in while linking the paypal account and not where the bank/cc company is located. if you link an address that is outside of Japan, the rules will change accordingly (unless this has been changed, too).

edit: ok, my memory is like a Swiss cheese, yet your google skills are crippled, as it took me 5s to find.

BigDaikon.com &bull; View topic - New Paypal restrictions for Japanese residents

the source:
http://www.sidley.com/files/News/cd6...03.30.10v2.pdf

So it would seem that you cannot send money, as Sangetsu says. And it was 2010 after all. Now, I will try to find something on receiving money, but i reckon, if your PayPal is linked to a foreign address, rules of the country that address is in will define what you can or cannot do with PayPal.

just a suggestion but maybe try Citibank? They're international, so you may have more luck with paypal and the like...

Citibank Japan is different from Citibank, though. Can't use paypal with a Citibank account made in Japan, I don't think.

How about using a credit card issued in Japan to open a Paypal account? I was able to open an account on Japanese Paypal using American Express issued in Japan. They'll charge a few yen to your account and use the transaction number to verify you.

For accepting payments, it works smoothly if the person sending you money has a paypal account. I occasionally send payments to Japan via paypal, but have never encountered problem.

According to Paypal, https://cms.paypal.com/jp/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=marketing_jp/RequestPayment