---
title: "Miscellaneous: bank transfer fees, statement retention, religious organization exemption, subsidies, and salary vs retained profit"
url: https://memocore.ai/memos/6a5f647c63d783ad6870951e
project: "Doing Business in Japan"
tags: "bank-account, tax-corporate, subsidies-and-grants, japan-business, unverified-opinion"
updated_at: "2026-07-21T12:22:20.156Z"
---

# Miscellaneous: bank transfer fees, statement retention, religious organization exemption, subsidies, and salary vs retained profit

The fee for a furikomi (bank transfer) is around 440 yen at most Japanese banks; some banks, such as Sumishin SBI Net Bank, offer a limited number of free transfers, sometimes tied to a client "tier." Bank statements in Japan are often kept for a limited period and are not automatically available further back than 2-3 months — for example, SMBC does not retain a long history for email notifications; it is possible to arrange with the bank for a statement covering a longer period, and in one case this was done in 2 days instead of the stated 2 weeks. Religious sects and organizations in Japan are officially exempt from taxation — mentioned in the chat as fact by a participant with relevant experience. There was a passing mention that some companies optimize or use subsidies (補助金, hojokin) more aggressively than usual — no details of the scheme were given in the chat. Finally, raising employee salaries is viewed more favorably by the government than growing a company's retained profit — seen as a long-term commitment from a tax and social-contribution standpoint, especially positively if a Japanese national is hired.