Paying ¥770 to move your own money across town sounds absurd until you realize a megabank ATM can charge exactly that. Do it monthly for rent and it's a quiet subscription you never signed up for. Mio doesn't care how your bank "feels" — here's the math.
The fee for one furikomi depends on three switches: which bank you're with, same bank vs other bank (transfers to the same bank are often cheaper or free), and ATM vs online/app (online is almost always cheaper than a teller or ATM). Stack the expensive options — a megabank, to another bank, at an ATM — and you hit the top of the range. Flip them and it can be free.
| Method | Fee (illustrative) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Online bank, first few/month | ¥0 | Sony / Rakuten / Sumishin SBI often include several free transfers monthly |
| Online bank, after free quota | ~¥110–150 | Cheapest paid tier; done in the app |
| Auto-debit (kōza furikae) | Usually ¥0 | Landlord/utility pulls the payment; the recurring winner |
| Megabank, same bank, online | ~¥0–220 | Same-bank transfers are often cheaper or free |
| Megabank, other bank, online | ~¥145–330 | Typical for app/web transfers to a different bank |
| Megabank, other bank, ATM | ~¥330–770 | The most expensive way; avoid for recurring payments |
Ranges are illustrative and change often — banks also adjust fees by account grade, time of day, and amount (some add a surcharge above ¥30,000). Always confirm your own bank's schedule.
Say rent is paid monthly by transfer. On a megabank, other-bank, at an ATM at ¥660 each, that's ¥660 × 12 ≈ ¥7,920/year, just in fees. Move the same payment to an online bank with free monthly transfers, or to auto-debit, and the fee drops to roughly ¥0. The rent didn't change — only how you moved it.
Over a typical 2-year lease that's roughly ¥15,000 saved for one setup change you make once.
Two things quietly cost foreign residents money here. First, auto-debit (kōza furikae) — where the landlord or management company pulls rent automatically — is usually free and never charges you a per-transfer fee, unlike manual furikomi. If your contract allows it, it's almost always the cheapest option. Second, code-pay apps like PayPay are not a standard way to pay a landlord in Japan; rent is overwhelmingly bank transfer or auto-debit, so don't assume a QR app will work for it.
Smart setup: keep an online bank (free monthly transfers) for any manual sending, and put rent/utilities on auto-debit where offered. That combination gets most people to near-zero transfer fees.
Recurring payment (rent, utilities) → auto-debit, or an online bank's free monthly transfer. One-off transfer to a person → online bank, same-bank if possible, never a megabank ATM if you can avoid it. The "right" bank isn't the one with the nicest branch — it's the one that isn't metering every move of your own money.
Mio