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Japan's hometown-tax program — donate, get ~30% back in local gifts, and credit most of the donation against your Japanese resident and income tax. It works for US persons too, with two wrinkles: it's not a US charitable deduction, and it can shrink your Foreign Tax Credit. Covers what the 返礼品 gift is and why, and when the program is actually worth it.
Read the revised guide: Furusato Nozei for US Persons →A practical guide to Japanese bank accounts for foreign residents: what you need to open one, the six-month hurdle and the ways around it, choosing among bank types, account and card realities (including why a credit card is hard at first), day-to-day mechanics, and the US side — any Japanese account, even a US-dollar one, is a foreign account for FBAR, and the bank will ask if you're a US person under FATCA.
Read the revised guide: Opening and Managing Japanese Bank Accounts →Why the standard Japanese investment products — mutual funds, and the funds inside NISA and iDeCo — are PFICs under US law and usually backfire for US persons, what isn't a PFIC, and how US persons in Japan commonly invest instead (including the FEIE-blocks-IRA-contributions trap). Educational, source-cited, not investment advice.
Read the revised guide: Investing from Japan as a US Person →How the Japanese pension and US Social Security fit together: the US–Japan totalization agreement (credits count toward qualifying, not amount), Japan's 10-year minimum and the vesting paths, the 脱退一時金 lump-sum trade-off, and the 2025 repeal of WEP/GPO — so drawing 厚生年金 no longer cuts your US Social Security. Verified against SSA, IRS, and Japan Pension Service sources.
Read the revised guide: Nenkin and US Social Security: How They Fit Together →A line-by-line walkthrough of a Japanese payslip — the three blocks (勤怠 / 支給 / 控除), a visual sample, overtime premiums, the deductions decoded, the two newcomer quirks (no resident tax in year one; income tax reconciled in December), the twice-a-year bonus, and what it all means for your US taxes. This completes the money section: eight guides covering FBAR, US taxes, investing, transfers, pensions, banking, furusato nozei, and payslips.
Read the revised guide: Reading Your Japanese Payslip →Moving your own money isn't taxed, but the exchange-rate margin is the real cost and large transfers are visible to both tax authorities. Covers a by-situation table of transfer methods, Japan's ¥1M remittance reporting, the FBAR angle (including that USD held in Wise/Revolut is still a foreign account), and the both-sides gift-tax trap. Also updated the FBAR guide to flag foreign multi-currency accounts.
Read the revised guide: Sending Money Between the US and Japan →A plain-English walkthrough of filing a US return from Japan: why you still have to file, the abroad deadlines (June 15 automatic, October 15 on request), the Foreign Tax Credit vs the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, self-employment tax and the US–Japan totalization fix, and the 8938/FBAR reporting layer. Verified against IRS and SSA primary sources.
Read the revised guide: Filing US Taxes from Japan: The Basics →The first cornerstone guide is published: who has to file FinCEN Form 114, which Japanese accounts count, how to read a 通帳 for the year's peak balance, the Treasury year-end rate, spouse and family rules, and what to do if you're years behind. Verified against eleven primary sources, June 2026.
Read the revised guide: FBAR for US Persons in Japan →First version of the site: the guide framework (every guide will cite primary sources and carry a last-verified date), the tools index, and this updates feed. The first batch of money guides — FBAR, US taxes from Japan, nenkin and Social Security, and more — is drafting now.
The flagship planning tool's hosted demo (v1.0.2) now lives at /tools/taigan-bridge/. It opens pre-loaded with a sample household so you can explore all sixteen modules without entering anything. For your real data, use the download link in the demo banner and open the single HTML file locally — your records stay on your own machine.