Rafael Caetano wrote:
> "mr.sumo snr." <mr_sumo@hotmail.com> wrote in message 
> 
>>BTW does anyone know the primary method by which 
>>Brazilians working in Japan send money to their home 
>>country?  
> 
> There are Banco do Brasil (the biggest Brazilian bank) branches in
> some cities with large concentrations of Brazilians. You can transfer
> money to any other bank in Brazil, in dollars or real.

AFAIK there isn't a branch in Okazaki but there is one 20 mins away in 
Toyohashi and a few further up the road in Shizuoka. A Brazilian girl 
who worked for me until last month just used to transfer via the post 
office. Two Colombians who were working here just used the local shinkin 
bank.

> I found out that I can send money thru them even if I don't have an
> account there, BUT since there's no branch in Fukuoka I'd have to
> _mail_ the money to the bank. I had never heard of such a thing. I
> know that Japan is safe, etc, but I don't feel comfortable sending my
> money by mail.

Only time I've done that was using the post office system (genkin 
kakitome futo) - paid my first 6 months tuition to Yamasa from bumfuck 
Gunma that way and was amazed that they didn't rob me blind.

>>I remember someone telling me about 7
>>years ago that the total annual non-commerical wire 
>>transfers from Japan to Brazil was something like USD $2 
>>billion - that's got to be worth an entry
>>in the Brazilian budget accounts.
> 
> Assuming that there are about 250 thousand Brazilians working here, I
> thought U$2 billion was an overestimate.  I checked a
> Brazilian-Japanese newspaper and the reported figure is actually U$2,4
> billion! But I don't know where do they get these numbers. That gives
> roughly U$10000/person/year. A bit too high, I think.

Perhaps that is inflated by the inclusion in non-commercial transfers of 
a number of returnees, purchases of Brazilian assests by Brazilians in 
Japan etc. USD$800 per month average per person still seems a bit high 
though, even with the amount of overtime many Brazilians here are working.




-- 
A hand on the bush is worth two birds on the arm.