The short version
- The number worth comparing isn't the fee printed on the receipt — it's that fee plus whatever the service adds to the exchange rate above the mid-market rate.
- A service that advertises "no fee" can still cost more per transfer than one that charges an explicit fee, if its exchange rate carries a wider markup. Exact figures shift often, so treat any percentage below as an illustration, not a quote.
- Wise, Revolut, SBI Remit, and a regular bank window transfer differ on English support, whether the recipient can pick up cash instead of a bank deposit, and what identification they ask you for.
- Most options ask for some proof of your residence status, and increasingly your My Number, though the exact list varies by service and changes without much notice.
- This is a general comparison of how these services work, not a recommendation of one over another for your specific transfer.
A transfer receipt can show a fee of a few hundred yen and still leave several thousand yen less on the other end than that number suggests. The gap usually isn't hiding in a second fee line. It's built into the exchange rate itself, and it's the reason two services that both promise to "send money to your home country" can convert the same amount of yen into noticeably different totals. If part of your pay leaves Japan every month, or you're moving savings home in one go, that gap matters more than which app has the nicer interface.
Why the fee on the receipt often isn't the real number
Two things determine what actually lands on the other end of an international transfer: whatever fee the service charges up front, and the exchange rate it applies to convert your yen into the recipient's currency. English-language comparison guides covering this space consistently make the same point: a service can advertise a "zero fee" or a small flat fee and still take more of your money overall, by setting its exchange rate a percentage or two below the mid-market rate (the neutral, interbank rate you'd see quoted on a financial news site). That gap is sometimes called the exchange-rate spread or markup, and it doesn't show up as a line item the way a fee does — it's baked into the number on the confirmation screen.
A rough example, not a quote for any current service: sending money through a bank teller window can involve a flat fee of a few thousand yen plus a wider rate spread, which several comparison sources describe as adding up to a total cost of several thousand yen or more on a single transfer. Services built specifically around transparent pricing tend to advertise a rate closer to mid-market plus a clearly stated fee, which can add up to less overall even when the fee itself looks bigger on the receipt. The specific percentages and yen amounts move often enough, by provider, by currency pair, and sometimes by the day, that this guide won't print a number and call it current — check each service's own calculator with your actual amount and destination before comparing.
Four ways to send, compared on structure
The table below lines up four common ways to move money out of Japan on the questions that tend to actually decide it for a foreign resident, rather than a single "cheapest" ranking that would go stale the next time any of these four changes its pricing.
| What matters to you | Wise | Revolut | SBI Remit | Japanese bank transfer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost structure | Built around an explicit fee on top of a rate close to mid-market, per the operator — confirm the current fee and rate for your currency pair | Own exchange rate, with some plans or off-hours (commonly cited: weekends) carrying an extra markup — unconfirmed for current plan tiers | Rate and fee combination said to vary by destination country — unconfirmed, compare per corridor | Flat transfer fee plus a wider rate spread is the commonly described pattern; total cost can run to several thousand yen or more per transfer — unconfirmed exact figures |
| English, start to finish | App and website built in English by default, per the operator | App and website built in English by default, per the operator | Unconfirmed — check the current English scope of sign-up, app, and support on the operator's own site | Mostly Japanese; branch staff and phone support are typically Japanese-language by default |
| Can the recipient collect cash? | No — arrives in a bank account | No — arrives in a bank account | Yes, for some destination countries via partner cash-pickup locations, per the operator — unconfirmed which countries currently qualify | No — arrives in a bank account |
| What you'll likely be asked for | Identity verification and, commonly, a Japanese residence card and My Number — unconfirmed exact list, check current sign-up requirements | Same general pattern as Wise — unconfirmed exact list | Same general pattern — unconfirmed exact list | A Japanese bank account already open, plus your normal banking ID; some transfers may prompt for My Number depending on the bank |
| Tends to suit | Regular account-to-account transfers where you want to see the fee and rate clearly stated | Smaller, weekday transfers, or if you're already using Revolut for everyday multi-currency spending | Sending to a country where the recipient needs to collect cash rather than deposit into a bank account | Larger transfers routed through an employer or existing banking relationship, or when neither app-based option is available to you |
The table above contains no links and was written independently of any commercial relationship. Cells marked "unconfirmed" could not be verified to a specific current figure from this site and should be checked directly with the provider before you rely on them.
Disclosure: the Wise link in the card below and the Wise link in the official links list further down this page are affiliate links. If you sign up and make a transfer through either, this site may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Revolut and SBI Remit links elsewhere on this page are ordinary links with no commission attached, and that difference has not changed anything in the comparison above.
Wise One of the four transfer services compared above
- Built around an explicit fee on top of a rate close to mid-market, per the operator
- App and website built in English by default, per the operator
- Tends to suit regular account-to-account transfers where you want the fee and rate clearly stated
The paperwork almost every option shares
Sending money out of Japan tends to ask for a version of the same identity check that comes up when you first set up banking in the country: proof of who you are and that you're a legal resident. In practice that commonly means your residence card (在留カード), and increasingly your My Number, since several services collect it for identity and reporting purposes. Exactly which documents a given service asks for, and whether it accepts a passport alone for smaller amounts, varies and changes over time, so treat this as the general shape rather than a checklist for a specific provider. If you haven't been through a similar document check yet, our guide to opening a bank account in Japan covers the same residence-card-and-My-Number pattern in more depth, since a Japanese bank account is what most of these transfer services actually move money out of.
Cash pickup: the one feature that depends entirely on where you're sending
Most of the options in the table only ever deposit into a bank account on the receiving end, which assumes your family or the recipient already has one. SBI Remit is described in the sources reviewed for this guide as also offering cash pickup through partner locations for some destination countries, which matters specifically if you're sending somewhere the recipient may not have easy access to a bank branch. Which countries currently qualify, and where the pickup points are, is exactly the kind of detail that shifts by corridor and by year, so this is a reason to check the specific destination on the operator's own site rather than something this guide can confirm in general terms.
A few questions that tend to narrow it down
Rather than naming a winner, here are the questions that the sources behind this comparison keep coming back to, since the answers point in different directions depending on your situation:
- Does the recipient need cash, or do they have a bank account? If it's cash, that narrows the field toward services offering pickup for that specific country.
- Is this a recurring monthly transfer or a one-off? A small percentage difference in the exchange rate spread adds up differently over a year of monthly transfers than it does on a single large transfer.
- How comfortable are you working through a sign-up or support process in Japanese if English isn't fully covered? This can matter more than the headline cost if something goes wrong partway through a transfer.
- Do you already have accounts or relationships set up with one of these services? Existing familiarity, and any identity checks already completed, can save real time compared to starting fresh somewhere else.
None of these questions has a universally right answer. They're meant to help you read the table above against your own situation rather than to replace the comparison with a single recommendation.
Official pages for the services named above:
The Revolut and SBI Remit links are plain links — this site has no commercial relationship with either company. Confirm current fees, exchange rates, and requirements directly with each provider before sending money.
Where this connects
Sending money home is usually downstream of a couple of other pieces of Japanese financial life already covered on this site. The amount you actually have available to send each month starts with your payslip, and our guide to reading a Japanese payslip walks through how gross pay turns into the take-home figure you're working from. If you're leaving Japan for good rather than sending money home while still working here, the pension lump-sum withdrawal payment guide covers a related question: once that payment arrives, moving it to an account outside Japan raises the same fee-versus-exchange-rate comparison covered above. And since most of the services in this comparison move money out of a Japanese bank account in the first place, our guide to opening a bank account in Japan is the piece that usually comes before any of this. A related but distinct problem is simply viewing your home-country bank's website from a Japan connection in the first place, rather than moving money out of Japan — our comparison of VPNs for reaching home-country banking sites and streaming services from Japan covers that side of it. If you're leaving Japan for good rather than sending money home periodically, belongings tend to need moving around the same time as the money does — our guide to shipping belongings home when you leave Japan compares Japan Post, Yamato, and international movers for that side of the move.
Sources
Last verified 2026-07-24 · Affiliate link added 2026-08-08 (the comparison content itself was not changed at that time).
For the general pattern of comparing a transfer's fee against its exchange-rate spread, and the four options described above, see the English-language overviews at Hello World Japan (helloworldjapan.com), Japan Life Start (japanlifestart.com), and Tokyo International Meetup (tokyointernationalmeetup.com). For each service's own current pricing, exchange rate, and identification requirements, see the official sites: Wise (wise.com), Revolut (revolut.com), and SBI Remit (remit.co.jp). Fees, exchange rates, cash-pickup availability by country, and document requirements change frequently and are set entirely by each provider; treat every figure above as illustrative rather than a current quote, and confirm directly with the provider before sending money.