Leading travel agent HIS on Monday began offering Western Union money transfer services. Two branches of Across No. 1 Travel located in Shinjuku and Ikebukuro and one HIS branch in Kannai, Yokohama, will initially offer over the counter services allowing consumers to send or receive Western Union transfers quickly.
The number of HIS offices that offer Western Union services is expected to increase significantly within a year from launch.
“Western Union’s service is about offering international money transfer consumers – convenience, reliability and the opportunity to send and receive money in minutes around the world,” said Yasuhiro Sakamoto, Country Head, Western Union Japan. “Teaming up with two of Japan’s popular travel agencies located in popular areas means as a company we are continuing to expand our network in Japan to make it even more convenient for our consumers.”
Western Union has more than 50 agent locations offering money transfers services via Travelex, Philippines National Bank and Daikokuya. In addition, registered customers of Seven Bank can send money through its on-line Internet banking portal or via its 18,000 ATMs throughout Japan.
© Japan Today
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some14some
independent banking service or linked with buying an expensive airticket from HIS?
Nicky Washida
some14some - do you know of cheaper travel agents? WLTK!
saru_au
https://www.golloyds.com/index/en
these guys offer the best exchange rates, and transfer fee is not that much either.
I used HIS a few times, but as I now mostly go to / from Australia I just buy tickets off the Jetstar website, wish more airlines were online like this.
davidattokyo
If one is based in Japan, the cheapest way to exchange is to use a FX company that offers the service. You can then exchange at close to market rates. Most banks have a spread of one yen or more, whereas one FX company I know does it for a spread of less than 0.1 yen (exact rate depends on the currency). The foreign banks have much narrower spreads than Japanese ones, but they still can't beat the FX companies.
The downside is you need to be able to read Japanese to open an FX account, and read through all their "risk" documentation. IMO there is minimal risk if you are just exchanging money though (as opposed to trading high leverage on margin). If you are going to be exchanging money often and with non-trivial amounts of cash then it's worth the hassle.
Nessie
The MInistry of Tourism read them the riot act, becuase it was ILLEGAL. HIS = ILLEGAL.
kurisupisu
At last Japan enters the 21st century ........