How to get a Payoneer Account in Japan

If you live in Japan and want to sell on eBay.com you now need a Payoneer Account. eBay is no longer working with Paypal in regards to seller Payouts. Buyers can still use it though.

Getting a Payoneer Account turned out more difficult than expected because their support staff is about as helpful as a bad AI would be. In order to get an account, you have to register on the website and provide your personal and bank account information. As it is not possible to enter your address in Japanese characters you have to enter it in English spelling.

Then they will ask you for some documents to prove your residency. They ask for a passport, however, a foreign passport will not be accepted, which you only find out after submission. My resident card that I submitted on the second try was ok though.

For proofing your address, you have to submit either a rental contract, a document from your bank that contains your address or a utility bill. I asked the support staff whether a Juminhyo would be sufficient because the rental contract and the utility bills are in my husband’s name and usually the banking statements in Japan don’t contain your address. It took about three e-mails until they understood my question because they never really read what I wrote and just gave me a reply that copied what is already explained on the website.

They said yes but when I submitted it, it was rejected. I was never able to get an answer to my question why it was not accepted because again no one actually read my e-mails. I think they never understood what a Juminhyo is in the first place.

In the end, I remembered that our internet contract is under my name. We don’t get the bills mailed so I had forgotten about it. I downloaded a PDF bill from our internet provider's website, and it was accepted. I have no idea how this document that you could fake rather easily is acceptable and a Juminyho with an official stamp from the city office is not.

If you can’t submit a utility bill, a bank statement or a rental contract I assume it is impossible to open an account.

If you are ready with the process and your account is officially opened, you can start receiving funds from eBay. With the new payment system, it takes a few days until funds are transferred from eBay to Payoneer. Then you can request a transfer to your bank account which again will take a few days. Payoneer charges fees for conversion of USD into JPY but there are no fees for transferring money to your bank account. Your bank might charges fees but as the transfer is considered a national transfer most Japanese banks should not. However, there is a minimum amount for the transfer which is 50USD for most accounts so if you only sell a few items on eBay it might be a better idea to sell elsewhere.