If you’re importing a car yourself, you’re going to need to transfer money to Japan. In this article I’m going to tell you how I do it. Whilst my experience in this area has been gained through paying for cars, it will apply to a whole range of goods and services in Japan that need to be paid for in Japanese Yen.
If you want the short answer and don’t want to read the whole article, I use Wise and I can wholeheartedly recommend their service. Click the link to see their current rates and fees for sending money to Japan.

Read on to learn how I have come to that decision!
There are 3 things I consider when assessing my options to transfer money to Japan. These are exchange rate, charges and speed. Let’s have a look at each of them in more detail.
Exchange rate
Whatever service you use to transfer money to Japan, it’s very unlikely that you’ll get the interbank rate you see when searching on Google Finance etc.
At my basic level of understanding, the organisations offering currency exchange make money through fees and their margin in the exchange rates they offer. I.e. they buy currency at a wholesale rate and sell it at a different rate, to give their profit.
The exchange rate, or put differently the number of Japanese Yen you can buy with each pound, can make a big difference to the cost of a car.
I cannot claim to have tried all the currency exchange options available, but I have tried quite a few over the last 8 years of importing cars from Japan. Let’s look at the current exchange rates on offer from some of the different options I’ve tried.
Exchange rates are constantly changing, but this is as direct a comparison as I could get. All these rates were obtained from their respective companies’ websites within minutes of each other.
Google Finance | 164.67114 |
Wise | 164.671 |
Paypal | 155.3887 |
High Street bank | Wouldn’t tell me online! |
TorFx | 159.6551 |
Wise used to be known as TransferWise, BTW.
You’ll see already that there is quite a difference, but exchange rates aren’t the only thing to consider. We have to look at charges as well.
Charges
This can be a fixed fee, or a percentage, or a mixture of both.
The main ‘high street’ banks usually charge significant amounts for foreign currency transactions.
So far I’ve covered fees incurred by the buyer. But in the past I have also been asked to cover charges made by the recipient’s bank to receive money from a foreign account, so that’s something else to check before going ahead.
Let’s have a look at charges from some different currency exchange options. I’ve decided not to name the High Street bank in question, but the charge is correct.
Wise | £13.21 |
Paypal | £2.99 (personal transaction) |
High Street bank (example) | £25 |
TorFx | £0 |
Speed, simplicity, service
Prompt payment can really help foster good business relationships.
Some banks (including my own High Street bank), still require customers to go into the branch and fill in a form for an international money transfer.
I find it far easier to be able to get everything done online, so any money transfer service I use has to offer a completely online experience.
Putting it all together: total costs to transfer money to Japan
Let’s say you’ve just won a car for a nice round 400,000 Japanese yen at auction.
You need to transfer money to Japan to pay for it.
Here is a comparison of the examples I’ve given above. These are based on the rates at the time of writing the article, so they will be out of date immediately, but hopefully you get the idea.
Wise | £2442.30 |
Paypal | £2577.18 (£134.88 more than Wise) |
TorFx | £2505.40 (£63.10 more than Wise) |
I think this illustrates quite clearly why I use Wise to transfer money to Japan when I’m paying for a car!

Other considerations
Business bank account for transferring money to Japan
All of the above applies whether you’re importing as a private purchase or as a business. Clearly the savings described above will be amplified substantially if you’re importing multiple cars as a business.
Wise also deserve a mention for their foreign currency business banking services. In case you haven’t encountered this before, a lot of business bank account providers will turn you away once they hear you’re buying and selling used cars, with importing representing even more of a risk to them. They’re so concerned about money laundering that it’s easier for them to say no without learning more about your business.
I have found Wise to be much more helpful in this regard. Check out the Wise business banking services here.
Summary
I hope this has given some food for thought on how to transfer money to Japan to pay for a car, or anything else. Do check costs for yourself as this is a competitive area and things may change in the future.
This post contains affiliate links. That means I earn some commission if you end up becoming a customer of the linked organisation(s). There is no extra cost to you.
Hi Andrew,
I literally read all of the articles you’ve published from A to Z and would like to say thank you so much for such an informative, well-structured and easy to follow website. I’m exploring an option to import car from Japan so your website is extremely useful – I really appreciate your work, thanks man!
Take care :),
Adam
That’s great to hear Adam, thanks for your comment and I hope the importing goes well.
Hi.
I have previously imported several cars from Japan.
Bought the yen myself via torfx.
Charged a landing fee by Japanese bank.
Can you shed any light on container shipping costs
4 medium sized cars to Felixstowe as apparently its quicker and cheaper but I want to be sure of this.
Ie loading-unloading fees etc.
Kind regards.
Lee
Container shipping is definitely quicker and (at the time of writing) much more available than RoRo shipping. Container rates are changing all the time, but the last time I checked it certainly wasn’t cheaper than RoRo, although it’s getting close.
Thanks
Andrew