[TorKlingberg]

Thank you. It matches my impression that lenders in other countries do share information, but mainly negative factors such as defaults. Than means "credit building" does not exist in the same way.

> nearly zero in Japan, historically

That surprises me actually. I know Japan has a very, let's say, high conscientiousness culture but do they never get into economic problems and are simply unable to pay card bills?

[patio11]

"Never" is a strong word, but you're welcome to read the English-language reports of Japanese lenders which break this out for their consumer businesses. Factors which generally tend to depress it include low revolving credit use, relatively high underwriting standards for credit (not solely a positive thing—ask your favorite Japan-resident foreigner for stories sometime), formal or informal risk transfer, outsourcing collections to the yakuza by policy [0], etc.

[0] I feel it necessary to say "I am not making this up. It happened at first-rate financial institutions many times within the last 20 years."

[njwi332]

Yeah, I'm currently going through the process of getting a mortgage for a property in Tokyo. I'm also interviewing about a potential job - nothing unusual there, moving around every 2-4 years is common in the software industry.

I was told in no uncertain terms by my real estate agent "Do not move company until your loan is approved. You're already impacted by the fact you work for a foreign company, and you will probably get declined if you start somewhere new."

The fact that I'd likely be looking at a substantial raise and therefore be in a better position to pay off any mortgage is irrelevant, the bank just cares about stability.

(I'm sure you already understand this, this story is for the benefit of other curious thread-readers)