I received a transfer into my HSBC account in Hong Kong from a Japanese bank. I had requested that the money be transferred in Japanese yen, (the funds were in yen), to my Japanese yen account in HSBC Hong Kong. The remitter asked his bank to effect this, but they advised him that he could only transfer in USD. So he transferred in USD, and then upon receipt HSBC converted to JPY, (so I had two exchange tranactions and incurred a loss of about JPY33,000 or USD428). The remitter was trying to be helpful, as I had asked for the funds to be received in JPY. Had I known that it could only be remitted in USD, (which may be the case, but seems bizarre), I would have just agreed to receive it in USD into my USD account. Does anyone have experience of Japanese banks insisting that outward remittances from Japan to overseas have to be in USD only?

Citibank Japan will transfer JPY overseas.

Thanks. Maybe only non Japanese banks can transfer in JPY and other currencies. I've heard that Japanese banks are pretty backward in many matters and that they make transferring money out of Japan as painful as possible - requiring reasons etc, although there is no exchange control.