Sending money to Japan

Hello, All

So I currently live in Japan and my parents want to send me some money from Canada. I don't have a Japanese bank account and I can't open one because there aren't any banks I can get to from here (I'm on a farm). Western Union and MoneyGram are out too. The nearest offices are 3 hours away by train. I was thinking I could make an account at a post office but I'm not sure if you can transfer money online to a post office account (If you can, please clarify this for me). Is there a safe and quick way to send money from Canada without me having to use my Canadian bank account?

Thanks in advance to those who give advice.

Have you considered postal atms? You should be able to withdraw directly from your Canadian account from the post office atms using a debit card, and there should be at least one near you.

A second option would be to withdraw from your Canadian Account or take a cash advance on a credit card at the atms found at 7-11 convenience stores. Just be aware that Mastercard based debit and credit cards are not supported.

here's some more info on atms in Japan:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2208.html

Another way would be for your parents to purchase yen-denominated "international postal money order" at a post office in Canada and post those to you. You should be able to take them to your local post office in Japan and cash them.

Note that they need to be "yen-denominated," and they need to be "international" + "postal" money order. No other money order works.

If the post office near you will accept... Canada Post offer the Money Gram International.

You can open an account with Shinsei bank through the mail as long as you're not here as a tourist.

http://www.shinseibank.com/english/powerflex/oa.html

I don't know about Canadian Dollars, but I know the Japan Post Office can cash "International Postal Money Orders" from the US Post Office (The USPS only sells International Postal Money Orders in USD only), just just convert it using the conversion rate of the day.

From what I've read, US dollars is OK, but Canadian dollar-denominated postal money order seems to be a problem in post offices in Japan. So it is easier if you get yen-denominated ones to begin with.

As you may have noticed most of the options involve your local post office so you may want to locate where that is. The atm option is probably best as it has good rates and is more or less instant, but if that doesn't work with your Canadian bank then international postal money orders are a good fallback. The main differences is that the process takes weeks compared to hours, and there's always the chance that the money order gets lost.

Thanks for everyone's response, but I have a quick question for yllwsmrf:

Does it really take weeks for the Int'l Postal money order, or is that depending on the type of mail used to send the order? If I were to receive the order today, let's just say, and I went to the post office to process it, I'd get that money today, right?

Thanks again for all the helpful responses.

I would say at the long end it can take up to 2-3 weeks for regular mail to reach you from North America. Express mail will more likely reach you in just a few days, and once you get the money order you can get cash immediately at your local post office bank.

But the atm is far more convenient and should be cheaper and safer as well. The withdrawal instantly debits your canadian account, and you can have your parents deposit into that account if necessary. The post office has some of the best exchange rates and the fee is about $5 per transaction. The one thing to be wary of is atm daily limits. If you need large amounts of money, or will be doing this frequently you may want to call your bank ahead of time to let them know that you are withdrawing from Japan, and also to raise your daily atm limit.

btw, is there a reason why you don't want to use your Canadian account or was that originally to avoid the high fees to wire money internationally?