"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.

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.

> 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.

[]s
Rafael